


The Tea Party From Hell

by kittyface27



Category: One Piece
Genre: Action, Drama, Family Drama, Follows Plot, Gen, Ruffy different devil fruit, Some Humor, Some angst, Totto Land, Whole Cake Island Arc, behind the scenes charlotte family, big mom pirates are the good guys, cannon divergence at certain times, follows cannon time line, maybe ooc characters, sarcastic MC, straw hats are the bad guys, twin Luffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-24
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2020-09-25 04:36:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 52,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20370793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kittyface27/pseuds/kittyface27
Summary: Charlotte Ruffy and his adoptive family have to deal with the Straw Hat crew and allies, lead by their nephew's twin, as they trash the Tea Party and declare war on the Big Mom family. "Retelling" of Whole Cake Island arc, but from the point of view of the Charlottes. In which the bad guys are the Straw Hats. (Sorry for the crappy title, I may change it later) Lots of action!





	1. Discovering Long Lost Family

**School starts in two days, so I might not be writing as much, but will still be posting Sons of Beasts, Family and FAS, The Never Ending Nightmare, and this one for a few more months at least. Just won't be writing new content. So I wrote this story while watching the Whole Cake Island arc. I will never do something like this again. It took FOREVER to get through the arc and I have a newfound appreciation of those who do memory fanfics. Pausing every few seconds to copy down a line of dialogue was not fun. Though I still enjoyed adding to the story. Ruffy's thinking is sarcastic, I couldn't help it with some of the scenes!**

* * *

**Something weird also happened to me while writing this. Since the point of view is from the Big Mom pirates, I started rooting for the bad guys while watching, even though I knew what was gonna happen! It was trippy. So Ruffy is considered an OC but he's basically an OOC Luffy. Maybe OOC Charlottes behind the scenes, but we'll never know. I haven't finished editing it, as I'm bored with editing, so I have 6 chapters edited. Another 50,000+ word story. Sorry about the long A/N. Enjoy~**

* * *

Ruffy sat on his bed and looked at the sheet of paper in his hand he'd snatched out of the latest newspaper. The teen held up the wanted poster in confusion, cocking his head to the side. Something was off about this photo. He didn't remember taking this picture. And he never wore that hat either. It was a wanted poster with a photo of Ruffy, only slightly different. If it werent for the small scar on the left cheek of the doppleganger, he would have thought it was him.

The photo had slipped out of the paper, and when Ruffy picked it up, he immediately stuffed it into his shorts before going into his room and locking the door so he wouldn't be interrupted by dad in case he had something to talk to him about.

Why was there someone who looked exactly like him? They even had the same haircut. Was he cloned? And why did his name rhyme with Ruffy's? _Monkey D. Luffy, _or otherwise known as _Straw Hat Luffy. _The last name wasn't even close to being the same, though.

Charlotte D. Ruffy didn't sound anything like "Monkey". And that was a pretty funny name. He wished he had a silly last name like that. Then he thought about something. He knew he was adopted, for he'd overheard a conversation from his father, Katakuri, when he was young, and knew he wasn't biologically related to any of his big family.

That's why Big Mom didn't like him much, despite the fact that he was a strong asset to the family. She never invited him to the tea parties, he was only allowed to come because of Katakuri bringing him along. The family still remembered when a four year old Ruffy jumped into the chocolate fountain. That had been a mess, and a nightmare to clean up.

But, even after that, no one was mad at him or hated him, besides Mama and Flampe, who seemed to be jealous of Ruffy being the son of Katakuri.

Anyways, what if Luffy was actually Ruffy's twin? Who's to say Ruffy and Luffy werent separated at birth? Well, he'd find out himself! Clearly, Katakuri had been keeping the wanted posters away, since there was no way 300,000,000 berris was a first time bounty. Ruffy wondered why it was kept from him. There were other wanted posters inside, but Ruffy wasn't interested in them.

Well, he wasn't mad. A bit irritated, but not mad. When Katakuri called his name, Ruffy shoved the paper under his mattress. Ruffy trotted down the tall hallway to the kitchen and gave his father the paper.

-x-

Ruffy sat at the desk in his room and wrote a letter to Straw Hat Luffy. He had crumpled papers on the floor around him, trying to find the best letter to send. He already had two photos of himself he'd send along with the letter.

One of them was a normal picture of himself, while the other was him in partial dragon form, where he was still in humanoid form but covered in black and green scales and red irises. He thought he looked cool like that, while some of the kids on the island he lived with Katakuri on were afraid of it.

_Hey, Straw Hat Luffy!_

_So I saw your latest wanted poster, and I thought it was of me! It's super cool that you and your crew broke into Enies Lobby and had it destroyed (if that is even accurate). I don't get to get into trouble like that much. :(_

_Anyways, I think we might be twins, or you're a clone of me. Or I'm a clone of you?! Oh well, at least that would be super cool. So, I thought, if we were related, we could be pen pals and write letters to each other. I'd love to hear about all of your adventures! And I could tell you all about my family. It's huge! Like, over 80 aunts and uncles. It's crazy._

_So, I hope you write me back. Bye bye._

_-Charlotte D. Ruffy_

Ruffy folded the letter and photos and put them in a thick envelope, putting it in the mail slot outside of the house for a coo to come and deliver the letter to Luffy. He really hoped that his twin would reply to him. He wondered how the pirate would react to it. And did this Luffy know who the Charlotte family was?

Did he know anything about the yonkos, or not since he was still in Paradise? Ruffy wondered what it was like over there. Did he come from Paradise? With no one wanting Ruffy to know he was adopted, he was never told where he had come from. It made him so curious it hurt. He never remembered crossing the Red Line, so had no idea if he'd ever even been out of the New World.

The furthest he remembered going was when he was brought along to getting massive sugar cane stalks from a certain island. Katakuri was very protective of him as a child and young teen, so Ruffy didn't go many places outside of Totto Land. but, at least there were many places he could hang out in Big Mom's territory.

Since the teen couldn't talk to his father about the letter sent, since he had hidden the wanted posters, Ruffy couldn't talk to him about it. There was only one person he could really talk to and always tell the truth. He bounded out of his room, and quickly told Katakuri that he was going to go see Pudding. He often visited his good friends, mostly going to her for it was more convenient. Plus, there, she had the sweets Ruffy inhaled like he was starving.

"Alright, be careful," Katakuri replied, reading on the huge couch. It was still early morning, so he was still at home and not going out to take care of his island. He always read in the morning, which is almost every day he woke up early enough for him to still be there.

"Will be," Ruffy said and, the moment he was a couple steps out of the front door, he transformed into full dragon form and took off, flying away from Komugi island, and going to the chocolate one where Pudding lived. He couldn't wait to tell her.

It never took long for Ruffy to get from one island to another, with how fast he could fly with his mythical zoan fruit. Flying was the most relaxing time Ruffy ever had. It was also nice that he could dive down and take mouthfuls of the flavored seas he flew over, easily ascending again afterwards with sweet tastes in his mouth.

The citizens on Cacao island weren't afraid of Ruffy's dragon form since he came there like that very often to see his best friend, and _technically_ aunt. He bounded into the back door of Pudding's cafe and announced his presence by stealing a cupcake off of a baking sheet on the counter. He was going to rip off a part of the wall, but there were some sweets right in front of him that he could eat instead.

"Ruffy, don't eat the customer's food!" Pudding scolded. There was no point in her saying it anymore, since he never stopped doing it. She actually made more in case Ruffy came to eat his fill. He walked to the bar stool against the counter Pudding was setting desserts up on plates for the customers and then making the display cases look like with her beautiful desserts. They looked so good!

A good thing about having Ruffy around was because he often showed up at the end of the day to "clean up" all the sweets that were left over by eating them like there was no tomorrow. If he couldn't that night, the leftovers would go into the fridge that was especially for Ruffy.

Ruffy and pudding had been friends ever since they were little. Ruffy was two when pudding was born, and being the only other young child in the family, he spent most time playing with the baby. As they grew up, they were still good friends, and Ruffy would visit often, eating most of what Pudding baked.

"Hey, guess what?" the boy asked, practically bouncing in his seat.

"What?" Pudding replied as she served the customers.

"Apparently I have a twin," he whispered, like it was some secret. Pudding's eyes widened when she looked at him. At first she thought he was joking, but she could tell he wasn't with the grin on his face. Plus, he was a terrible liar. "Yeah. He's a wanted pirate in Paradise. Just broke into Enies Lobby and apparently destroyed the island. He must be crazy strong. So I wrote him a letter. Ya know it's possible, since I'm adopted but no one wants me to know. And dad has been hiding the wanted posters, so he didn't want me to see. I wonder why…" Ruffy said, looking up with his hand on his chin.

Pudding sat at the bar counter next to Ruffy. "What's his name?" she asked curiously. What would Ruffy's twin be like?

"Straw Hat Luffy. Bounty is 300,000,000 berris. So cool, right? Full name is Monkey D. Luffy. Isn't it weird our names are so close to being the same? Makes me so curious!" Ruffy said loudly. "I sent him some pictures of me to prove that I do look like him. I sent him a picture of me normally, and then me in partial dragon mode."

"Hmm... Well it's possible you two could be twins. Do you think you'll ever meet him?" Pudding wondered. Luffy shrugged.

"Probably not here. Even if he is pretty strong, Mama and the Charlotte family are super strong. I mean, dad has a bounty over a billion. Luffy would have to get seven hundred million more berris on his current bounty to be even close. Maybe I'll see him sometime outside of Totto Land. That'd be nice," Ruffy said. "And I'm curious about his crew."

"Well, don't rule out ever meeting him," Pudding replied, going back behind the counter to make another serving of cupcakes for the customers who had been in there for awhile. "Tell me if he writes you back. Now I'm pretty curious, too."

"Okay!" Luffy said, stealing another cupcake from the tray before leaving. Like usual, he broke off a piece of the wall to eat on his way out. Pudding was used to it by now, and it was an easy fix. People ate buildings and furniture all of the time.

He changed into dragon form to go to the sea next to Jam Island. The water always tasted delicious. He loved his devil fruit. It was not only strong, but fun and convenient. He could go anywhere in Totto Land easily, not needing or going through the hassle of using a ship between island to island.

When he reached the pink and red colored water, he didn't hesitate to dive under, guzzling the fruity water before surfacing again. Now he was sticky with the juice, but it was no problem as he headed back home, and just dunked under the normal water. Komugi island was further away than the others, so it took a little while to get there, but not too long.

Ruffy constantly looked at the front door of his and Katakuri's house, wanting Luffy to have written back by now. He was a bit sad when it had reached two weeks after writing to him. By then, he'd seen all of the others wanted posters, and wondered what was up with Sanji. His face… did he really look like that? Or was it just a terribly drawn picture?

Well, if he did look like that, then it was nice Luffy still let him on board. Of course Ruffy wouldn't protest for looks, but he could see many Charlottes not wanting to be associated with him. Mostly the women.

Nami and Robin were pretty, and Zoro looked like a strong guy, with the second highest bounty to Luffy. Franky also looked like a strange guy. Ruffy had seen double chins, but triple chins? How did that happen? And they had a pet, too. It seemed like Luffy's crew was very diverse. It was cool, and Ruffy wanted to hear more about them!

-x-

Finally the day came that a Coo dropped a thick envelope to Ruffy and Katakuri's front door. When the teen opened to check it, like he did everyday, he had to hold in a cheer. His dad didn't know about him writing Luffy, and didn't know about him even knowing who he was.

He hurried to his room, glad Katakuri was out at that time, going around the island and doing his minister duties. The moment Ruffy reached his room, he slammed the tall door shut. For anyone not with extreme strength, it would be impossible for them to even open the doors in his house, which were sized for his father. Though there were doorknobs that reached from a normal height to the height the giant Sweet Commander would need to open.

He flung himself down on his large bed and ripped the envelope open. There was a long letter, and multiple photos. He saved the photos for last, wondering what Luffy had sent. His twin didn't have the best handwriting, but it was still legible.

_Ah, that's so cool! I have had two older brothers, but they werent blood related. They would have been so upset if there were TWO of me. Well, kinda, though I don't think you're a clone, but neither am I. Oh that'd be sool cool to have a clone! Then I could play pranks on other people. My crew would hate that, but it sounds so fun!_

_We should totally be pen pals and write to each other! Robin told me that the Charlotte family is the Big Mom pirates, an emperor's crew! That means you're super strong right? Maybe we could fight some day! But first we have to get to the New World. Fishman Island sounds fun. Sanji really wants to see some mermaids. He likes ladies._

_And I could show you my shipwright's inventions. He can make so much stuff. Our ship is so cool, there's even an aquarium, and the ship can fly by using cola! It's soda powered, isn't that awesome?_

_You're devil fruit looks so cool! Robin told me it's probably a mythical zoan, which is more rare than a logia! Ace - Firefist Ace - is my brother and has a fire logia. He's super strong, and is on another yonko's crew. I have the gum-gum fruit, which made me rubber and I can do all this cool stuff, too! I'm immune to guns and punches. It's kept me alive from being in stupid situations and fights._

_I hope we can see each other some time in the future. So, write me back!_

_-Luffy, the future Pirate King :)_

Ruffy smiled as he read. Luffy sounded like a bubbly person. Then he turned to the photos to see himself standing with Luffy's crew. They were all smiling, while two of them looked like they didn't really want to be there. Roronoa Zoro and the other guy, who must be a real picture of Sanji. Whoever drew his wanted poster has terrible artistic skills. Ruffy could probably draw better than that.

Another photo was of his ship, which looked fun and cheerful, with a lion's head that looked like a sun also for the figure head. Luffy liked this ship much more than the ships he'd seen in Totto Land. Secretly, Ruffy hated the main ship. The figure head talks the whole time, which he thought was annoying, even if he'd only been on it a couple times.

Katakuri had brought him on multiple times when he was a young child and there was no one to babysit on short notice. He had sat in a mochi backpack so not to annoy anyone important. Well, not to annoy Mama. all the other brothers and sisters of Katakuri liked Ruffy.

There one other photo that was of Luffy, as he was red and steaming, with his arms stretched apart. Ruffy decided he liked his devil fruit more. Luffy didn't seem like he could fly or breath fire. Ruffy was immune to guns, punches, and swords when he was doned with the scales. It hadn't always been like that. He got the fruit when he was eight, and at first had been tiny and his scales were weak and bendy.

As he aged, they got thicker and harder the older he got and the intense training his dad had taken him through. He was also trained in hand to hand combat, also from his father. Being the son of the strongest Charlotte, Ruffy needed to be strong so it didn't make Katakuri look bad. But, he also trained his son because he cared about him a lot.

Despite how hard and hostile the Sweet Commander looked and acted towards many outsiders, he was a softy when it came to Ruffy, who was one of the few people to see Katakuri's full face.

Ruffy put the letter and pictures into the envelope and stuck it in a bag, heading outside and shifting into his full dragon form and flying away, carrying the bag in his clawed hands. It was time to finally show Pudding. She would be interested, and Ruffy could eat some of her sweets or the walls again.

When he slammed the back chocolate door open, Pudding jumped in surprise, a tray of brownies falling to the ground before Ruffy zipped over and caught it. Pudding hit him on the head. "Don't startle me like that! No, no brownies for you," Pudding said, keeping the brownies out of her best friend's reach.

"C'mon, Pudding! I didn't mean to, I was just excited. Luffy wrote back, finally!" Ruffy cheered, grinning when Pudding caved and gave him a pile of brownies. She lead him to the front, and asked him for the details as Ruffy continued to grin.

"Read it to me," the girl said. So Ruffy excitedly read the letter to her, putting emotions into his voice to make the letter sound more like a story. It sounded to him how it would be spoken by Luffy. Pudding smiled at the silliness that sounded to come from Luffy's letter.

"Then he sent me some pictures. His ship looks super cool! And his body is made of rubber, which is really weird." And then he laughed. "Then there's a group picture of him and his crew. What?" Ruffy asked, seeing Pudding's red face as she looked at the group photo. "What's wrong?"

"N-Nothing," Pudding said quickly, but his head face in her hands as it got redder.

"Ah! You think the guys are _hot~_, don't you? Zoro and Sanji," Ruffy teased. "Sanji looks much better in this than his drawn wanted poster, huh?" Pudding nodded, her face still in her hands. "Which one do you like better?" the teen continued to tease.

"...Zoro looks scary. Sanji is really handsome," Pudding said quietly.

"Hey, maybe if I meet Luffy, you can meet Sanji," the boy offered, taking the photo back. It was strange how this person looked exactly like him. Like he was looking at a mirror. Luffy looked good in a hat. That meant Ruffy would look good in a hat. It was so weird!

"I hope I can meet Luffy some day," Ruffy sighed, resting his jaw on his hand. "My long lost brother. Maybe he has some answers about my birth family."

Ruffy and Luffy continued to write to each other, Luffy telling his identical twin all about his adventures. Going on a haunted ship really didn't seem appealing to Ruffy. Especially since it was supposed to have zombies. It made him wonder if Mama would let zombies into Totto Land. After all, she wanted to it be open to all kinds of people and animals.

And Luffy had said the zombies' bites didn't do anything. And he had sent a picture of the walking, talking skeleton with an afro. It was so cool! Luffy had everyone on his crew. A reindeer/man, cyborg, skeleton, humans. And he said that Brook, the living skeleton, was a musician.

But, a couple weeks after Luffy's last letter, he stopped messaging. For two years. With Ruffy not supposed to be knowing Luffy, he didn't see the paper until the war had long passed. Ruffy was very sad for his twin, that he lost his last big brother. And he might be dead. Ruffy was very upset from that for awhile, before he finally told his father about the relationship between the twins.

Katakuri was only not very angry after learning about it because Ruffy was very upset about what had happened, and locked himself in his room for a couple days. Only Pudding was able to get him to come out.

Ruffy knew he hadn't ever met Luffy, and didn't know him that well, but he had had a tie to someone _not _in his adoptive family. He really hoped Luffy was alright, and the rest of his crew as well, since they all went missing around the same time. Hearing that made Pudding sad. She'd never get to meet Sanji.

Ruffy had once said in a message that his best friend thought Sanji was attractive, to which Sanji apparently was ecstatic, though he didn't have a picture of her. Any lady thinking he was good looking was good enough for him apparently.

-x-

"AHHH!" a scream came from Ruffy's room. Katakuri rushed to it and slammed the door open.

"What's wrong?!" he asked in a slight panic, as Ruffy had tears in his eyes while looking at the newspaper. Ruffy just looked up at him, a watery smile on his face. He held up the paper with shaking hands. Katakuri didn't get to see the paper before Ruffy shouted, "Luffy is alive! And so are the rest of his crew!"

Katakuri smiled at Ruffy, who was covering his red eyes with his hands. He was so happy his brother had survived. He must have been away training or something. For two years. If that were the case, Luffy would no doubt be much stronger. Plus, he had to be stronger to get to the New World, where they were heading. His crew had to be stronger now, too.

By the time the paper had come out, the Straw Hats had already descended and were on their way to Fishman Island at the bottom of the sea. Maybe Ruffy really could meet him, and pudding could meet Sanji! Oh, she'd be so happy to hear the news.

"I gotta go tell pudding!" Ruffy shouted as downed his pills before he threw a shirt on and left the house, sprinting out and then flying off as fast as he could, before his father could even respond. Ruffy flew across the ocean faster than ever before, zipping to Cacao island as fast as he could, grinning, showing his sharp teeth.

He landed outside of Pudding's house, and burst through the door, something Pudding hated. But Ruffy never stopped. It wasn't as if she walked around naked or anything that could be embarrassing like that.

"Pudding!" he shouted as he searched the house, finding her in her room, sleeping. He jumped on the bed. "Pudding, Pudding!"

She screamed in surprise, and kicked him in the face. "You jerk!" she shouted, covering her third eye with her hair as fast as she could. Ruffy didn't care about her third eye, but she was always embarrassed about it. "What do you want?" she asked grumpily. Ruffy beamed at him.

"The Straw Hats are alive! Luffy is alive, Sanji is alive! They're gonna be in the New World soon, and then maybe we could meet them some day, right? They aren't dead!" Ruffy cheered. Pudding smiled widely, too.

"That's good," she sighed, and fixed her hair before going downstairs, her face red. Ruffy grinned at her. He bounded down the stairs after her.

"You gonna bake something?" Ruffy asked as he sat at her table. She always baked when she was really happy. When she was sad or upset, she ate all the sweets she had, but never gained any weight, like Ruffy, who could eat an elephant and still eat more afterwards. She nodded her head, and got out her supplies. Brownies.

"I know I have no connection to any of them like you do, but I'm really happy. And I know how hard it was for you to think he was dead. I'm happy for you, Ruffy," Pudding said with a big smile that Ruffy returned.

* * *

**A little slow to start, but it will start following the WCI arc ** **plot-line** **, though from another's point of view on the "bad guys" side. Don't worry, it isn't a carbon-copy of the arc with nothing new, as I have an OC and a whole crap ton of original content while also following the arc. You'll just have to see, it's hard to explain.**

**And I just love writing dragon fanfics right now. So, yeah, Ruffy has a kick ass mythical zoan fruit. Katakuri is also one of the main characters throughout the story. And I will be putting the Straw Hats and their allies in a bad light, as they are considered the enemy and bad guys from this point of view. Review!**


	2. The Story Begins

---  
  
**Angel1622: Thank you! **

  
It was late the next day that Ruffy was at home, reading on the big couch when Katakuri frowned down at him. "Straw Hat Luffy challenged Mama at Fishman Island." Ruffy closed the book and looked up at his father with a shocked expression. Katakuri sighed and sat down next to Ruffy.

"You can't talk with him anymore," the man said sadly. He knew how much Ruffy liked communicating with Luffy, and they had just come back, only to have Ruffy unable to speak to him anymore. "Mama will be angry if you keep pleasantries with him or his crew. You're already his twin, you don't want to seem more involved than that. I'm really sorry, Ruffy. I know how much talking to him meant to you.

"I think you should send one last letter to break it off. Tell him the truth about why you can't speak to him again. And who knows, he may actually come here, like an idiot. If he does come here, Ruffy, it's an act of war against Mama, and you won't get to side with him. From now on, I want you to be in partial dragon mode, so you are clearly not Straw Hat Luffy."

Ruffy listened to him talk with wide, horrified eyes. He then looked down at his hands, frowning deeply. After everything, Ruffy wasn't surprised that Luffy was brave/stupid enough to challenge the yonko. And it no doubt infuriated her. And an angry Big Mom wasn't pleasant, even to her children. She wouldn't sparet them if she were in a rage. Certainly, not an adopted grandchild.

"I'm not surprised. I mean, he broke into Impel Down and charged into the War Of The Best. Pudding will be sad, too," Ruffy finished sadly. Katakuri sighed, and Ruffy knew he hadn't finished speaking.

"That is another matter. Turns out Sanji, is _Vinsmoke_ Sanji. The son of the leader of an unstoppable army, _Germa 66_. His original wanted poster, the very poorly drawn one, was replaced by a new one. Still not the most flattering photo, but Mama and _Germa 66 _found out a lot of information, and finally tracked him down.

"Pudding will be in an arranged marriage with him, so Mama can assimilate the Germa army into our crew," he said, though the Sweet Commander didn't seem happy about it. It should be good news.

"I'm sure Pudding will be really happy! She's always wanted to meet him, and now she gets to marry him!" Ruffy said in a happy voice, though it wasn't true. He was very upset he wasn't allowed to talk to the only biological family he had, and he hadn't even gotten any answers about _anything _from him.

"It's not a good thing, and Pudding won't be happy."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Ruffy asked in confusion. Katakuri looked at him and closed his eyes.

"Once Pudding marrys Sanji, the Vinsmoke family will all be assasinated. Pudding will have to kill Sanji. It's Mama's plan, and we can't protest. Not this time, not even I will say anything against it."

Ruffy looked horrified. "Does Pudding know yet?" he asked quietly. Katakuri nodded his head, and at light speed, Ruffy was out of the house and flying to Cacao to comfort his best friend. It was storming, fitting the way Ruffy felt. But the storm didn't stop him, and he flew above the clouds so they didn't bother him as he flew to Pudding's island by scent, since he couldn't see.

Pudding must be very upset. Ruffy was very upset, too, but he didn't have to kill Luffy. And he couldn't be surprised if his twin stormed into Totto Land to get his precious friend back. All of Luffy's friends meant the world to him, and he probably wouldn't let Sanji go without a fight. If Luffy came here, would Ruffy have to fight him?

Ruffy didn't know if he could. And, to be honest, Ruffy didn't know if he could beat his twin. And he didn't want to have to try.

He reached the island quickly and this time, slowly opened Pudding's front door. He heard crying from upstairs. He frowned and walked to Pudding's room, where she was curled up on her bed, crying quietly.

The older teen sat on the best next to Pudding and put his arm around her shoulders. They didn't say anything for awhile, Ruffy just gave her comfort as she cried.

"I finally get to see him, and I have to kill him," she sobbed. "Why can't I just marry him and that'll be it? Surely we could just kill his family and keep him, right? I hate Mama. Acting like I'm a doll! I don't want to be a puppet, Ruffy," Pudding whispered the last part, as if Mama could hear her from her bedroom.

"Luffy challenged Mama. I can't talk to him anymore," Ruffy said flatly. "He's Mama's enemy now."

"At least you don't have to kill him," Pudding replied quietly. She sniffled and then looked up, rubbing her eyes with her fists, trying to get rid of the tears.

"You don't know Sanji. You've never spoken with him. It would be much more painful if you had gotten to know him. But, now that you know what you have to do, you can be prepared, right? To not grow attached before the wedding. Besides, they haven't even caught Sanji yet. Maybe he can get somewhere Mama can't reach him," Ruffy offered. Pudding didn't answer for a moment.

"Not everyone can be as positive as you can, Ruffy. I've killed people before, so it's nothing new. Still, I killed people who were cruel to me. Sanji's done nothing." She then let out a humorless laugh. "I hope he's a total asshole."

Ruffy looked to the door. The only door in the house that had no face. "I doubt that. Luffy is a nice person, at least he seemed that way. Why would a nice person have an asshole on their crew? Well, maybe he's the group's asshole. We never know.

"The wedding won't be anytime soon. I'm sure of that. They still have to catch him, and who knows where they are? The must be in New World already, but there's tons of islands here. They could be on any one.

"Luffy said in his letter to me he was going to be the Pirate King. If that's his goal, then why would he back down, and let Mama take his friend?" Ruffy asked, laying his head down on the table. "I thought at first he wouldn't be brave enough. But he did charge into a war." Ruffy chewed on his bottom lip.

"I really hope he doesn't come," he said sadly. "I don't want to see him here if it's going to be in a bad way… this sucks."

Pudding agreed, losing herself in baking, for once not eating, her way to comfort herself. Ruffy was silent the whole time, just being there so she wouldn't be alone while being so upset. Poor Pudding. And Ruffy really didn't want to have to fight Luffy. Really, _really, _didn't want to. But, Luffy might do anything to get Sanji back, including fighting Ruffy.

But, if it came to that, it was family first. The family who raised him, and he'd have to be against his biological family. He didn't want that to happen, and would rather just help his dad out if he got into any fights with the Straw Hats or any allies they might have.

-x-

_Luffy,_

_Since you challenged Big Mom down at Fishman Island, I can't talk to you anymore. It would be dangerous for me if I kept in contact with you, especially since I am identical to you. So, now I have to go partial dragon mode so no one mistakes me with you._

_I'll miss talking, and I didn't even get to have any answers about our birth family. I hope I meet you someday, but not here. Totto Land is very dangerous for you. I don't doubt you could defeat some of them, but the Sweet Commanders, especially my dad, Katakuri, have over a billion berri bounty._

_Have a nice journey on your way to being the Pirate King. It was nice to talk to you for our little time._

_-Ruffy_

Ruffy wrote the letter with tears in his eyes. He didn't get to know Luffy as much as he wanted, but he really wished he had. Luffy talked mostly about his friends and adventures instead of his past. Ruffy sadly put it in an envelope and stuck it in the slot for a Coo to come get. He sulked back into the house and went into his room, not looking at his dad, who had just come back for the night.

"I sent the goodbye letter," Ruffy said with a flat voice. Katakuri looked at him sadly.

"I'll tell you about your past."

Ruffy stopped immediately, with wide eyes, and hurried back to the love seat opposite of the couch Katakuri was on. He hadn't asked his dad in the last couple years because he was waiting to have that conversation with Luffy. But, now that he knew he wouldn't, he'd have to get the information from another source. Katakuri.

"Your birth father is Dragon, the leader of the revolutionary army. We don't know who your mother is, but it seems no one does. Your birth grandfather is Monkey D. Garp, a marine hero. You were born in the East Blue, far, far from here."

"...How did you get me?" Ruffy asked quietly, still digesting his heritage. A revolutionary father and a marine grandfather?

"I think you were kidnapped, and we found you in Paradise when we went to hunt down a betrayer, on Mama's orders," Katakari answered. "Found you on a ship we wrecked, luckily floating on a headboard. Picked you up and planned on dropping you off on another island. But, we ended up keeping you. The crew didn't want you to leave, and eventually I didn't either. So I raised you as my son.

"I didn't tell you you were adopted because I didn't want you to feel bad about it. But, you already seemed to know about it. How?" Katakuri asked. All that work in hiding the truth, and Ruffy knew about it. How long had he known? And did it not bother him? If it had, Ruffy would have let on he knew about it.

"I heard you talking with Smoothie about it when I saw six," Luffy replied. "It didn't make me feel bad because I am and was treated like a real family member to everyone. Well, except Big Mom. And Flampe later," he added. He gave his dad a smile. "But thank you for trying to protect me from the truth to not make me feel bad."

"You're welcome. I wanted to keep you thinking we're your biological family so you didn't feel any different. I guess I was wrong. After all, you don't get fazed much by 'bad stuff', do you? Not being afraid of Mama as a toddler. I thought there was something wrong with you," Katakuri chuckled. "We're all glad I found you out there. You _are _a part of this family, no matter how Mama feels."

Ruffy grinned at him. "I know." Then he made a small frown. "Hey, do you think Luffy has my problem, too? Like, it's genetic or something?"

"I wouldn't think so. He's not a mythical zoan. Just make sure to take your pills and you'll be fine," Katakuri replied.

-x-

"Wow, Pudding, Luffy and his ally, Trafalgar Law, beat Doflamingo. That's one of the warlords," Ruffy said, sitting at the bar at Pudding's cafe. He read the article out loud to her. They both thought that the way it was written was probably off. After all, it was run by the government, and they didn't like making their own people look bad.

"Looks like Luffy has a bunch of new allies. I really wonder what happened! I wish I could write to him again." Then he slapped his cheeks. "I need to get over it!" he said loudly.

"Shh, don't disturb the customers," Pudding said in a lightly scolding tone. But she wasn't truly mad at him. At the moment, she felt bad for him. It had been a month or so since the news came out to the Charlottes that Sanji would be married and killed by Pudding. She had distanced herself from thinking about it, since it might not happen for a long time. But, Dressrosa was getting closer and closer to the Totto Islands. Both friends distracted themselves as best as they could by baking more. Ruffy helped her by fetching the supplies and ingredients, measuring flour and butter and the like.

Ruffy was only not in partial dragon form in his own home and with Pudding. Other than that, he kept himself covered in scales, all up to his face, where the only normal skin was a patch around his nose and eyes, which were red. There two horns poking out of his hair were visible to everyone.

It scared a lot of the citizens. They knew Ruffy had a devil fruit, but this version, not human and not dragon, unsettled them. But, it was dad's order, and he always knew what was best for Ruffy. Plus, with how angry Mama had been after the argument between her and Luffy about fishman Island, and he didn't want to look anything like Luffy.

Pudding and Ruffy were asked to exit the cafe out the back, and follow a Peacekeeper to the castle, where many of the Charlottes were gathered in front of Mama, who looked ecstatic as she ate her living desserts.

"Ma ma ma! Good news, everyone! We have captured Vinsmoke Sanji!" Ruffy reached for Pudding's hand in comfort for her. "Germa 66 will soon be ours! Then those insufferable Vinsmokes will be out of the picture! All of them. At the wedding, Pudding will shoot Sanji, as the rest will capture the Vinsmokes and kill them. They won't expect a thing!

"And, if anyone lets anything slip, you will die a painful death," Big Mom warned. Ruffy knew she was targeting Flampe and Ruffy. Flampe would brag about it most likely, about how strong Katakuri was, to be one of those killing the Germa 66 leaders.

Ruffy hadn't let anything important slip in a long time, but Mama still help him accountable for telling Lola about the marriage he'd heard about before she even knew. But, there was no proof that it was Ruffy's fault she left, as she did so _after _she was told by Mama. And she was kind enough to not rat him out, and she only learned about it from Pudding saying something. It was an accident, but she was upset about Lola leaving and let slip that Ruffy had spoken to her.

"They should reach here in a few days." Then she turned to Pudding, who was standing in front of everyone, along with Flampe and Luffy, since they were all the shortest and couldn't see behind the other family members.

"Pudding, you're my little doll. You must be convincing, make him trust and love you. You have amazing skill with lying and pretending, don't you?" Big Mom said in her sickly sweet voice. Pudding smiled, and said, "Yes, Mama," though Luffy knew she was acting right then with her hand tightening in his scaley one, his short talons not bothering her as he was careful.

That was the real downside of being stuck in this form. The fingers. They sharpened automatically, and got in the way of him doing things. But, he'd gotten used to it a bit more since he was always in this form when in public.

_Ugh, Luffy._

"We will have a wedding cake, too!" Big Mom cheered. Then they were dismissed. Katakuri walked out, and told Ruffy he needed to go shopping for something nice to wear. He invited Pudding to come, but she replied, "Mama is going to pick everything for me. I would like to go home by myself."

"Let me take you home. It'll be much faster than you getting back on a ship. We don't have to talk if you don't want to." Pudding nodded, and Luffy transformed fully. Somehow, when he changed, his pants and shoes transformed as well and didn't rip. "I'll see you in a bit, dad. Stay here," he said and took off.

Ruffy flew at a speed that wouldn't knock Pudding off, and neither said anything. Ruffy said nothing about Pudding's crying, and as soon as they got to Cacao island, Pudding ran to her house and shut the door behind her, locking it. Ruffy sighed and flew back to Katakuri to go shopping.

He landed and sighed, changing into partial mode. "This is gonna suck, isn't it?" Ruffy asked as he and Katakuri walked through the streets.

"Ruffy, it's not gonna be that bad. And we'll make sure to get something you can get off easily if needed. Need to take into account you might have to change fully, so we won't get something too expensive," the man said, leading the much smaller Ruffy next to him, having to slow slightly so he didn't walk right ahead and leave the normal-sized human behind.

Ruffy frowned the whole time he was being fitted, and did change back to his normal form, which was nice. The tuxes didn't look too good with his small and thin statue, so they chose some nice shorts and a black button up shirt, which was good so he could tear the buttons off and transform fully and not have ruined it. All it needed was new buttons.

Katakuri didn't get fitted for any fancy clothes, since it might restrict his powers and he just didn't want to. And since he was an important figure in the family, he did what he wanted. Unless Mama told him different.

Ruffy knew secretly Katakuri hated taking orders from Big Mom at all. The only time he defied her was when she wanted him to get rid of Luffy when he was a baby. Ruffy had even been in the room, as a sixth month year old baby, thumb in his mouth, resting in a mochi baby carrier around his chest.

On their way home, on the ship, since Katakuri was too big to be on Ruffy to go from island to island, even though you'd think he could based on Ruffy's size, Katakuri said, "I don't want you to cause any trouble. And if Straw Hat Luffy comes, I want you to stay away from him, and help deal with anything else. I don't want you to have to fight him."

Ruffy smiled sadly. "Okay. I won't seek him out, and won't fight him if I see him. But, what if he tries talking to me in a friendly way? Won't it be seen as if I had relations with him or something?" he asked in slight concern.

"Well, hopefully he won't recognize you in dragon form."

"I already sent him a picture of me in dragon form. The first time I messaged him. I thought he'd think it was cool. It wasn't fully partial dragon mode, as all of my face was still visible, but still…"

"Maybe, if he says something to you, just say something like, 'family comes first'. That would look least suspicious," Katakuri offered, not mad Ruffy had sent a photo of that. He couldn't have predicted it maybe happening two years ago.

Ruffy shrugged. "I guess that would work. I hope he doesn't hate me," Ruffy said. Secretly, he wanted Sanji to escape, and for Luffy to actually come. He knew Pudding had that wish, too. She really didn't want to kill Sanji, and she'd have to be fake even more while killing him.

Her real acting was when she was angry and cruel. When she was sweet, that was the real her. She just did what Mama wanted to acted the way she wished. After all, Pudding was one of the favorites, being so beautiful and young. She was perfect for this role, no matter how much she didn't want it.

"Poor Pudding," Ruffy mumbled. Katakuri sighed, too.

-x-

The next day, Ruffy couldn't stand to wait anymore after hearing that some of the Vinsmokes were nearing their station next to the palace on Whole Cake Island. Ruffy woke up and left the house before his dad could tell him not too. Ruffy wanted to see Sanji before the wedding. And talk to him privately.

If he was going to die, then he should at least have his last few days enjoyable. Well, as enjoyable as someone could be when they were ripped away from their friends to be married to someone they don't want to.

Ruffy took his pills and then changed into full dragon form and flew off towards Whole Cake Island. He wouldn't cause any trouble. Just speak to Sanji and leave. When he was just about to pass Nuts Island, he saw a strange ship, that had what looked like a giant transponder snail as some sort of figure head. Then he saw the sail, seeing it was a Germa ship. Maybe Sanji was on this one.

He flew right at it, hearing two people, a man and woman, exclaiming about a dragon coming at them. The man wanted to fight him, but Ruffy wouldn't mess anything up. He wouldn't cause any trouble if he could help it. If the guy did try and attack him, he'd just dodge. His observation haki wasn't nearly as developed as his dad's, but having someone who can see the future teach you haki, he was above most his age.

These were genetically enhanced soldiers, so they should be strong, but not fast enough for Ruffy to not evade.

When he got closer, he shrunk himself so he could land lightly on the edge of the grass. "Is Vinsmoke Sanji on this ship?" he asked, still in dragon form.

The pink haired woman replied that he wasn't. "Why do you want to see him?" she asked, not sounding suspicious, just curious.

"I have something to tell him about his future wife. Do you know where I can find him?" Ruffy asked politely. "We all assume he doesn't want to marry, so what I have to say might help to change his mind a bit."

"He should be at or be close to the main Germa kingdom. It's docked at Whole Cake Island, behind the castle," the woman replied.

"Hey, you. Are you human?" the green haired man asked. He didn't look like the most polite guy.

"Yes. I have a dragon devil fruit," Ruffy replied honestly. "Well, I better be off! See you at the wedding, have a nice day," he said and flew up, enlarging himself to full size, where he was almost larger than their ship. He barely heard the man say he wanted to battle the dragon, but Ruffy didn't turn around. He wouldn't get a fight with anyone, no matter what.

He flew to Whole Cake Island, and around the back, shrinking himself again. He didn't want to be rude, so the dragon landed behind the docked castle, and called from there in a booming voice, using the large voice box he had as a dragon, even a smaller one that was the size of a large carriage.

"Hello? Is Vinsmoke Sanji on this ship?" he boomed. A few people, obviously soldiers, came over to investigate, and upon seeing the black and green dragon, which, despite Ruffy's carefree personality and attitude, he was quite frightening. Even with his mouth closed, some long, sharp teeth poked over the bottom lip. His eyes were red and he had spikes and horns on his head and spine. Not to mention the armored tail with spikes on the end.

"Is Sanji here?" Ruffy called again.

"What are you here for?" one of the soldiers asked. They were on guard, since Ruffy was intimidating.

"I'm here to tell him something about his soon to be bride that might make him less likely to fight back," Ruffy called back. Then, a man with very strong haki (nothing compared to his dad's, of course), walked over. Ruffy assumed he was the leader of the army and father of the kids.

He stared at Ruffy for a moment, as if sizing him up. Ruffy, especially in dragon form, had haki that was bad for children and the elderly. It was heavy and terrifying to many. But, most of the Charlotte family had strong presences. So, Vinsmoke would have to get used to it. Luffy was normal in the family, even if it wasn't his biologically.

"Go fetch Sanji," Vinsmoke said. But, Ruffy heard fast footsteps and Sanji came sprinting over.

"Luffy?!" he screamed, obviously recognizing Ruffy's voice as his captain's.

"Ah, no, sorry. I'm Ruffy, his twin," Ruffy said politely. "I need to tell you something."

Sanji's face fell, but also looked relieved. "We can go to my room," Sanji murmured, leading Ruffy away, who changed into partial dragon form, walking behind the blonde. Vinsmoke was behind them, but Ruffy didn't look back.

"Are you a Charlotte?" Vinsmoke called, causing Luffy to stop and turn around.

"Yeah, Dogtooth Katakuri's son. Nice to meet you. Hope we have a peaceful wedding," Ruffy said with a smile, his teeth still sharp. Ruffy heard Vinsmoke to tell his army not to even touch Ruffy. No one wants an angry Dogtooth.

Ruffy followed Sanji to the castle, and flew up to the balcony after Sanji flew up by kicking the air.

"What is it you wanted to tell me?" the prince asked. He sat down on a loveseat, while Luffy took the floor. He looked exactly like Luffy, without the scar under his left eye.

But he sure was dressed differently. Black pants, black boots, and no shirt. Plus, no signature hat. It was hard for Sanji to look at. Ruffy could tell this. "Would you like me to change back to dragon form so I don't look like Luffy?" Sanji smiled and nodded, thanking him.

"Do you remember the first letter I sent Luffy?" Ruffy asked. Sanji nodded, remembering that day clearly, how happy Luffy had been. "And that he sent me pictures, including one of the whole crew at the time?" Sanji nodded again. "Oh, and by the way, you look much better than you do in both wanted posters.

"Anyways, Pudding is like by best friend, even though she's technically my aunt, we've grown up together. I showed her the picture of your crew, and she blushed and thought you and Zoro were attractive, though she said that Zoro scared her. I would tease her about it, because she would always ask if there was something for her from you in the letters.

"When we heard about the Straw Hats going missing, she was very upset. She always wanted to meet you. And she was so happy when you guys 'came back from the dead'. She's excited to finally meet you, so as her best friend, don't you dare hurt her feelings," Ruffy warned.

Sanji had had a happy face on while Ruffy told him about Pudding. Someone would be with him who likes him in this hell. "Thank you for telling me. Tell Pudding-chan I look forward to meet her, too. And I won't hurt her. It is beaten into my very soul to never hurt a woman, no matter what," the man vowed. Ruffy grinned, showing his dagger-like teeth. "Honestly, I thought she must have forgotten about us all during our absence and not sending letters anymore."

"Well, she didn't. Anyways, I hope it makes you feel a little more welcomed. See you at the wedding in a couple days. Should be... exciting. Oh, and a green haired man and pink haired woman on a snail ship are on their way here. Should be here in a couple hours, maybe. Just a heads up. Bye!" and Ruffy left, jumping off the balcony and down to the ground below, landing gracefully on his feet. Not like the Vinsmoke children who damaged things when they landed.

Ruffy changed back into dragon form and flew away, going back to his regular size once he was very much above the spires. He looked back down; it really was a weird kingdom. It rests on giant snails and locks together? That's actually pretty cool.

As he was flying away, he crossed paths with the snail ship again, but said and did nothing to them. The green haired one grumbled about not being able to reach the dragon.

When he made it back home, Katakuri was waiting for him. Ruffy only snuck out before he woke up when he thought whatever he was going to do would not be approved by the man. He was on the couch when Ruffy slowly opened the front door, and got a burst of angry haki.

Katakuri's haki didn't scare or terrorize Ruffy, as he had gotten used to it at a young age. And not being afraid of Katakuri's haki was a small step away from not being afraid of Big Mom's haki, which she hated.

"Crap."

"Where did you go?" Katakuri asked in a low voice. "You only sneak out when you do something you think I wouldn't let you."

"I only went to the Germa 66 castle to get Sanji less likely to want to leave. I didn't get in any fights, and was respectful. None of the Vinsmokes I saw were hostile towards me, though the green haired one wanted to fight, but I left before that could have happened," Ruffy said quickly.

He was practically incapable of lying, so Katakuri knew he was telling the truth. "What did you say?"

"I told him about how much Pudding had wanted to meet him since Luffy first sent me the letter with a bunch of pictures in it. It was the truth, and hopefully it will make him love her more, and less likely to oppose.

"Pudding only has to try and be herself to get him to like her. You know she's acting when she's mean. Mama thinks it's the opposite, which is good for her since that's what she wants. But… if Pudding has to kill him, at least she can get her affections returned.

"I… don't want Sanji to die. But that's what is going to happen, and I've accepted that." Katakuri lightened the haki. Ruffy hadn't done anything bad.

"If the Straw Hats do come, will you help them take back Sanji?" he asked in a low voice. It's like he thought there were recorders in the room.

"No, I won't. I wish them good luck, but I won't help. I'll do what I have to do, but will try to stay far away from Luffy. And, I'm also suspicious of something else, dad," Ruffy said with a grim face. Katakuri sat back down on the couch, and Ruffy plopped down on the carpet in front of him.

"What is it?"

"Jinbei tried to resign recently, right?" Ruffy asked. When Katakuri confirmed, Ruffy continued. "Jinbei helped out Luffy in the war. He helped him escape from the battlefield. It said so in the paper. And he clearly doesn't want to be here anymore. don't you think, if the Straw Hats including Luffy _do _come, it would make sense for him to help them out. I'm just saying we should keep an eye on Jinbei," the older teen finished.

Ruffy had liked Jinbei, even though he knew the fishman didn't like him much. He had been greatly disappointed when Ruffy told him that he was Luffy's _twin, _not Luffy. Maybe Ruffy reminded him of Luffy too much. So, he tried to avoid Ruffy whenever they rarely were in the same place at the same time.

"That's a good point. I would not be surprised if he did something like that. Jinbei has honor, and would no doubt help the man who saved him. But, all of this is just speculation. If the Straw Hats were coming in the first place, wouldn't we have seen or heard about them being here by now?" Katakuri asked. Then he added. "You'd make a good commander, Luffy. Yes, you're ditzy a lot of the time" -"Hey!" - "but you're also quite smart when it comes to fights and battles."

"I am not ditzy, dad! I'm… simple. And silly. Not ditzy. You have insulted my honor as a man," Ruffy said in a mock-serious voice.

"Okay, I apologize," Katakuri said somewhat sarcastically. Ruffy laughed.

"I'm gonna eat now. Are you going out to do your minister duties?" Ruffy asked from the kitchen as he pulled the massive refrigerator open and grabbed something random to shove into his mouth.

"Yeah. I'll probably be out most of the day. I'll see you later," Katakuri said before closing and locking the front door. Ruffy went to his room and pulled out the photos and letters that were under his mattress. _Luffy, please don't come here._


	3. Tea Party Begins

**This is the chapter where my plot syncs with the plot of the Whole Cake Island Arc. There are gonna be multiple chapters of the Tea Party/Wedding. What a pain in the butt the Reiju/Pudding scene was. I literally paused to write down each line of dialogue through the whole conversation. I'm twisting around Pudding's character a lot in this fic. So, here's part 1 of the Tea Party. Enjoy~**

* * *

Ruffy arrived in Pudding's room in the castle, the next day since she was temporarily living there before the wedding so she didn't have to take multiple trips from her home island to Whole Cake Island. He knocked on the door, but Pudding didn't answer. He could tell she was in there with his haki and enhanced dragon senses. And he could hear her. Crying.

Ruffy opened the door to see the room was in the dark. He turned on the light from the wall, closing the door behind him. She didn't look up, just rubbed all of her eyes fiercely, trying to stop the tears.

"What's wrong?" Ruffy asked after sitting next to her on the bed.

"Sanji-san is so nice," she sniffled. "I don't want to kill him. His family is rude; I don't mind anyone killing them or their father. But Sanji-san doesn't deserve to die. I've completely convinced him. And he wants to get married to me, all because I put on a pretty face and got emotional." Ruffy frowned, not having anything to say to that, and not knowing how to comfort her.

"I have a confession to make," she whispered. Ruffy stayed silent, wondering what Pudding was going to say. "I met the Straw Hats on my island. I gave them a map to get here. I want them to save Sanji-san. I told them I'd bring Sanji-san to the coast, but of course I can't do that. So, I just let them get here. I did what I could," Pudding finished. Luffy looked at her in shock.

"Pudding, you betrayed Mama," Ruffy said in disbelief. But she shook her head frantically.

"I can say I lead them here so Mama could get them sooner. She hates Luffy, so saying that would make it seem like I did it for her. Like I was offering them up. But, they have to get through the Seducing Woods. With the Tea Party and wedding coming up, other Charlottes from the other islands will show up. Cracker should be here soon.

"The crew has to deal with Brulee and the homies in the island, and if Cracker, a Sweet Commander, is coming, he might be the one to fight them. Luffy is strong, but Cracker is also. So I either set them up to save Sanji, or to die a painful death by our family members. That's my excuse for betraying Mama.

"I did it so they'd be rid of quickly. Besides, Mama won't hurt me. My _doll _face has to be pretty, despite my creepy third eye. It's all I could think to do. I have to kill Sanji-san. But before that, I hope they save him first. And then leave, they can't take down the Sweet Commanders or Mama." Pudding looked up at him seriously, her three eyes all puffy and red.

"Katakuri will lose if he fights Luffy."

"What? Dad is super strong, why would he lose?" Ruffy asked, slightly offended. Katakuri had one of the highest bounties of the whole Charlotte family and their allies.

"Could you kill someone with the face of a loved one?" Pudding asked seriously. "If you had a child, would you be able to kill someone that looks and sounds the same as it?" Ruffy furrowed his brows. "Katakuri shouldn't be the one to fight him, and neither should you."

"I understand. So, who should fight him? If Cracker loses, if he can't kill Luffy and whoever he brought, then Smoothie would be the next best choice. Perospero could try." Ruffy then couldn't help but smile. "What was he like? Who did he bring?" Pudding smiled at him, and told Ruffy all about his brother and his three crewmates and two guests.

"I think you have better common sense and maturity than Luffy," she chuckled. "Nami had to cover his mouth so he didn't give away any more information. He ate so much of the cafe. Him and the little reindeer.

"I don't like Brook at all. He seems like a pervert, but it was the first meeting, so maybe he was just nervous or something. There was a bunny mink girl with them, as well as a jaguar mink man. I gave them the little map a few days ago, so they should at least be here by now. If they're not, then they got taken out at sea, or died in the Seducing Woods."

"I hope they are okay."

"Me too."

They both just laid on the bed, thinking about what a crappy situation this was. But then Ruffy sat up quickly. There was someone close. Outside. "There's someone outside. I don't recognize them," Ruffy said. Pudding grabbed her new gun in the drawer of her nightstand, and hurried outside. "Stay here," she said, and left the room, leaving the door open. It wasn't much later that a gunshot was heard. Ruffy stayed there, wondering who or what she had shot.

It was answered a moment later when Pudding dragged the pink haired woman from before in, her leg bleeding. Pudding had her "evil" expression on, and Ruffy gave a sigh. It was always hard to watch Pudding act so cruel, even if she didn't totally mean it.

Ruffy didn't do anything as Pudding threw Reiju onto a chair and had Nitro, the jelly homie, stick her hands together. The man in the room sighed, and crossed his legs on the bed. Reiju was bleeding heavily from the thigh, which Pudding had done.

"Are you really planning to marry Sanji? You seem too perfect," Reiju said. Pudding sneered.

"Stop dreaming! Will I marry that lowlife?! No way," she responded, tapping her special gun against his thigh. "No way. I'm Mama's favorite. _Especially _with my acting skills. She cares for me so much these days, to the extent that I get annoyed," Pudding said, looking completely bothered.

Big Mom cared about Pudding's _looks,_ as long as she hides her "creepy" third eye. doesn't care much about her. She was just a pretty pawn, like most of the younger children. Ruffy continued to just watch and stay silent as Pudding continued to taunt Reiju.

"It's too easy for me to fool a guy to keep her happy. Tricking the Straw Hats was a piece of cake, too. Only my family knows my true nature." Ruffy nodded, that was only true for some of Pudding's family. Like Ruffy, Lola, and Chiffon. She'd confide in each of them before Lola left and Chiffon lived with her husband and his crew. So Ruffy was the only one now.

"You people are so naive. The evil army, _Germa 66? _Stay in your fantasy world, you dumbasses!" she said, and laughed wickedly.

By now, Ruffy knew Sanji was outside and listening through the window. Could hear him breathing, smell the nicotine he had smelt when Ruffy told him about Pudding. Of course now it made it seem like Ruffy had been lying. But, he didn't close the curtains. The more Sanji heard, the better. Maybe then, he'd leave with Luffy, since that was no doubt what the Straw Hats were doing there in the first place. Ruffy felt sorry for him.

"Mama's aim was to get your army of clone soldiers and scientific technology from the start."

Rejui finally spoke, and said, "How obnoxious," looking at Pudding like she was a child throwing a tantrum, though it could be described that way.

"My, you are so defiant. We know you guys won't obey us and we don't need you. The whole Germa kingdom is anchored in our territory right now! You guys are like flies swarming over a sweet candy, which in this case, is Sanji-sa- _Sanji's_ political marriage. It all went as Mama planned.

"After the wedding tomorrow, you Vinsmokes will all be _eliminated," _Pudding said, sitting down and crossing her legs. She also then moved her bangs away and opened her third eye. It didn't faze Ruffy, but it surprised Reiju, and by the gasp Luffy could barely hear, it surprised Sanji as well.

"The six Vinsmokes at the top will be riddled with bullets tomorrow. The hall will be covered in red. _Bang." _Ruffy finally turned away to look at his hands, and not the act Pudding was putting on. "But even at the moment of death, please don't get your blood everywhere and scream miserably, and out of control. You have to be careful. If the wedding cake gets splattered with blood, Mama will be mad.

"And she'll destroy the place," Pudding said lightly. Then Pudding showed off her gun, and how strong it was. That the bullets were made to go through shields and armored soldiers. "They'll penetrate all of your metal-enhanced bodies." Pudding chuckled. "I can't _wait _for tomorrow!

"How'll Sanji_-sa_\- Sanji look when I, who he trusted so much, point this gun at him? Do you want to know how he proposed? That was hilarious," Pudding taunted, and Ruffy suddenly got up and closed the curtain so Sanji wouldn't see how far Pudding would go in making sure of him for the act.

Ruffy shut the curtains, locking eyes with Sanji, who had tears in his eyes. Ruffy gave him a sad look, and closed them, also closing the shutters. With Sanji unable to see in, and sounds was more muffled, he left.

When Pudding started making fun of Sanji's injuries and how they made his face look, Ruffy walked out, shutting the door quietly. He didn't want to see anymore.

That was probably for the best. Sanji finding out like that. With it happening in those circumstances, where neither Pudding nor Ruffy told Sanji directly what the plan was. So neither could be held accountable for a coincidence of Sanji being in the right place at the right time. Ruffy hoped he would leave now.

It was late at night by then, and raining heavily, pouring down sticky syrup. Ruffy went outside and shifted fully and flying back home. The syrup's sweet smell always confused his sense of smell, so he hated the rain. If it were just water, it'd be fine. But the sugary liquid smelled strongly.

He just knew they way to go home, and flew in that direction.

-x-

He got only a couple hours of sleep before he was woken up by Katakuri. "Ruffy, get up. We have to get there early," he said and threw the nice clothes Ruffy had to wear that day on the bed. Ruffy moaned. It was still dark outside, why did they need to get there seven hours early?

"You can sleep on the ship. That'll take about two hours. Then we'll have five before the Tea Party starts," the man said and grabbed his scarf off the back of the couch, leaving to fetch the ship. Ruffy lagged behind, showering quickly, since he was still covered in sticky syrup from the night before. Well, it was still night. So, from a couple hours ago.

He was too tired that he wasn't going to fly ahead of the ship. He'd sleep some more. Two hours should be enough. He stayed up late every night anyways, but he didn't have something so big to happen in those mornings. He wondered how Pudding was doing.

It wasn't raining anymore, thankfully, and he walked to the docks where Katakuri's ship was stationed, his crew already on. Ruffy was the last to get on, and went inside immediately to crash onto the couch and instantly fall unconscious.

It was like he'd had a second of sleep before he was woken up again, and handed a poncho, that dragged on the ground while Ruffy was wearing it. "Why do I have to wear this, dad?" he asked in annoyance.

"It's still raining here. Don't want your clothes to get ruined, and you don't want to be covered in it so you smell it the rest of the day. Throughout the whole event, stay in partial mode," Katakuri said. Ruffy shifted, growing the scales along all of his body besides the middle of his face. That was the only area there was still human skin.

Instantly, things became brighter, louder, and more scented. The Tea Party was going to reek of candy all day. And blood, if the Vinsmokes do all get killed like planned.

As Katakuri and Ruffy walked to the palace doors, Ruffy asked, "Any sign of Luffy?"

"Now for awhile. He and the orange haired girl were supposed to have burned to death down in the book dungeons, but that hasn't been proven. So, he could be anywhere right now. We'll know once the Tea Party starts, I guess. No matter what," Katakuri said quietly, "you won't fight to help them. He's your biological family, but we are your real family."

"Okay…"

Katakuri went to Mama, while Ruffy sat next to the front door and leaned against the wall, falling asleep again. Ruffy only came with Katakuri because they were coming from the same place, he wasn't part of the big preparations. After all, Mama didn't like him much. So he waited in the hall, even every time one of the other older Charlottes came in. They gave no hostile intent towards Ruffy as he slept, so he didn't wake up. Someone would come get him. Hopefully.

Katakuri picked him up sleeping and basically hid him from view behind a giant cupcake so he wouldn't get in the way of arrivals and attract too much attention from as form he was in. Then the man went back to the entrance of the Chateau and watched over the searching of guests to make sure they could enter.

Ruffy finally woke up with the electric sound that buzzed in his enhanced ears. It put his hands over them, trying to go back to sleep, but there was also shouting. Ruffy's hearing was hypersensitive in this form, even more so than in full dragon form. He held his hands to his ears in irritation, but now couldn't get back to sleep.

He jumped up to the wall, where Katakuri was, and sat a ways away, watching the guests enter. He passed the Vinsmoke family, who stared at him for a moment in curiosity. Ruffy looked to Reiju, but Pudding had clearly wiped her memory as she didn't show any recognition to the dragon/man. He would have thought Sanji would tell his siblings, but he guessed not.

"Oi, are you that dragon we saw?" the green haired Vinsmoke asked. In Ruffy's opinion, they all looked like jerks. Pudding said so, too. Well, they'll be dead soon anyways.

"Yeah," Ruffy answered truthfully, his teeth showing when he opened his mouth.

"I told you not to pick a fight with him," the father said in his annoying voice. The three young, male Vinsmokes scoffed, and walked away. Ruffy wondered what that was about.

Ruffy got further away from Katakuri when he saw the look in his eyes. He was seeing something negative, so Ruffy walked along the wall far enough to not be seen or caught in the middle. Stupid raiders. Sure, what happened to their captain sucked, but he was about to kill some of the security team, apparently.

The older teen watched in interest when his uncles Oven and Daifuku came over and used their devil fruits to kill the raiders.

"Yo! Daifuku, Oven! Haven't seen you guys in a long time," Ruffy said, running along the frosting wall. The older Charlottes were the ones who liked Ruffy the most. After all, they watched him grow up the most, since he was a baby, and he was now almost 20.

"Hey, Ruffy! What's with the getup?" Oven asked as he stood below the teen.

"My twin is here. And he's an enemy. don't want to get mistaken for him and killed!" Ruffy laughed.

"Oh yeah, Straw Hat Luffy. Well, he supposedly dead, but we don't know for sure. So, smart to stay in that form. Katakuri told you to, didn't he?" Ruffy frowned.

"I'm smart enough to decide to disguise myself."

"I told him to," Katakuri said in his cold voice, as he was now in public. Ruffy pouted while his two uncles laughed at him.

"Jerks," Ruffy grumbled.

"We're just teasing you. It'll all be over soon and we can enjoy all the sweets we want," Oven laughed. Ruffy smiled. Oven and Smoothie were his favorite aunts and uncles, probably because they were the two most supporting of Katakuri's decision. No one would have guessed they liked kids.

Well, maybe it was because they'd already had so many little brothers and sisters that they were used to children like that.

"Sure hope it's over soon," Ruffy muttered. "I'm going inside, dad." Katakuri nodded, and Ruffy lightly jumped off the frosting wall and landed on the ground softly. He walked into the castle, making his way up the stairs, not taking Perospero's escalator since he was annoyed with every guest staring at him.

He knew he looked weird in this form, but there wasn't anything else he could do to make sure he was distinguished from the intruders, who Ruffy had a feeling had not died, and were waiting to take Sanji back.

After last night, he hadn't left already?

When everyone was in the Tea Party area, Ruffy sat by himself in a corner. Pudding wasn't there to hang out with and he wasn't exactly in a good mood. He had a bad feeling. Where had the other Straw Hats gone? Luffy and Nami were supposed to be dead, but there were four others that went with them.

He looked to Mama, and Katakuri was sandwiched between Big Mom and Vinsmoke Judge. His father did not look impressed as he side eyed the man. Ruffy could see the clear dislike on Katakuri's face. He almost laughed about it, but that might bring attention to himself. He was sick of everyone staring at him.

Especially the Vinsmoke children besides Reiju. He wanted to fly over and knock their heads off they were so annoying. He was taken out of his irritable thoughts when the music and singing started. It was starting. Pudding should come out any minute now, with the man she had to kill.

Ruffy kept his gaze on Katakuri and Mama's table. Oh, how fooled that Judge was. It was almost sad to see that he didn't catch the merciless and sadistic expressions sent towards him from Big Mom.

He locked eyes with his dad, who very slightly and slowly raised one shoulder. Ruffy was now sitting at a table with a large number of guests, sipping his drink, and staring at the place Pudding and Sanji would stand. He couldn't help but hone his senses, trying to hear, see or smell something that was going wrong. But there was nothing and soon the obligational cheering started as Pudding and Sanji -_he didn't leave?!- _came into view on Zeus.

Everyone stood, but Ruffy. He felt bad for Pudding, and no one noticed that he didn't stand as everyone's attention was on the couple. Sanji had the stupidest face on. He was still clearly infatuated with Pudding, which made no sense based on the fact he'd heard and seen her brag about killing him and his family.

We're all of the Straw Hats this weird?

But, he had to say, when the wedding cake came out, it made his mouth water like crazy. He was going to help himself to a lot of it. He looked over to see his dad and Smoothie with their eyes shadowed. It was almost time, wasn't it? He sighed, just wanting this to be over already.

With the cake having knocked over seat and tables when it emerged, everyone found new seats, while the Vinsmoke family were all grouped at one table. Big Mom family members sat all around the Vinsmoke table. Easy to pick them off. They couldn't escape even if they thought to, since they were completely surrounded by their - unknown at the time - enemy.

Ruffy walked to the table Katakuri was sitting at. Mama had gotten up and didn't notice him moving there. No one else protested at the table, who were all older Charlotte siblings.

Ruffy's attention snapped to his father after hearing the worried intake of breath. He was seeing something bad happening soon. Ruffy slowly started to stand up.

"Something wrong, brother?" Smoothie asked from behind them. Ruffy looked to Katakuri with wide eyes, then looking back at Pudding. Was something bad going to happen to her? When? Everything looked like it was going to plan, Sanji was pulling up Pudding's veil while she pulled her gun out from behind her back.

But, when the veil was lifted, Sanji didn't look at her in disgust, but blushed. "She's not going to shoot," Ruffy said quietly, but loud enough for those around him to hear.

"What a beautiful third eye," Ruffy could hear from the cake top above. The others around him couldn't.

"Dad, she's not going to shoot," Ruffy insisted.

"I know."

Pudding looked shocked, tears down her face already. It didn't take long for her to drop the gun, and then fall to her knees and start sobbing. Ruffy knew what she was thinking and must be feeling, but she was ruining the plan and she'd get in trouble! He looked back to Katakuri for any indication of what would happen next.

When the priest pulled out his own gun, Katakuri tensed again, and shot a jelly bean so fast it killed the priest when Sanji dodged. Katakuri ran in front of Mama, his trident already out, and she asked, "What the hell is going on?! What happened to Pudding, Katakuri?!"

"We have a bigger problem! It's an unanticipated situation, Mama! Not even I can do anything!" the Sweet Commander said angrily. Ruffy heard it from the table, and his heart was beating very quickly. What was going to happen?

The rest of the family were on guard, though most of them didn't hear the conversation across the court between Big Mom and Katakuri.

"Is the plan still on?"

"She hasn't shot Sanji yet!"

Uneasiness and uncertainty ran in all of the Charlottes. Then, everyone was silent when something came bursting out of Mama's precious wedding cake.


	4. A Disastrous Event

Ruffy's eyes grew massive when dozens of Luffys came bursting out of the cake, _destroying_ it. He couldn't tell which Luffy, if any of them, were the real one until one shouted, "BIG MOM!"

His twin was shocked to see Luffy burst out of the wedding cake. He was right, Luffy wasn't dead. And he looked even more identical in person than in photos. Ruffy needed to stay away from him, and walked behind the nearest Charlotte discreetly. He didn't want Luffy to see him either.

Everyone but the guests were speechless, in shock. Then, everyone's attention snapped to Mama. "WHAAAAT?!" she screeched. Her children grew concerned. That cake was destroyed. Mama had been looking forward to it for a long time. She was no doubt going to do on a rampage. _What was the point of this, Luffy? What the hell were you thinking?!_

As people panicked and ran, or just continued to look at it in shock, the Luffy clones, acting like animals, fled the cake and went to eat desserts off of other tables. Then the cake began to fall, and Ruffy looked up, worried about Pudding. If Luffy ended up hurting her, he was going to be livid, twin or not.

But Sanji was walking in the air holding Pudding, who was still crying. Ruffy couldn't be mad at Sanji after saying such kind words to Pudding, but he could be mad at Luffy, who should have just left! Mama's anticipated wedding cake was destroyed, and Luffy had no idea what a furious Big Mom was like.

Last time the yonko was upset about food, she'd killed one of her sons like it was nothing, and it wasn't ever mentioned again.

"My… precious… wedding cake is… is. Oh I was so looking forward to it!" Big Mom started to cry. Ruffy backed away further, as cooks tried to calm her down, telling her to keep her senses. But she didn't, and started to cry, her eyes glowing in crazed way. Sweat slid down Ruffy's scales, and he could see his other family members were worried as well.

"Bring me a new cake!" the yonko demanded at the poor chefs, who were trying to calm her down.

"That- that's impossible!" the head chef cried. Ruffy backed away, looking to Katakuri, who nodded his head at Luffy when he backed away. If Mama was truly going to go out of control, and was mad at Luffy, Ruffy would be next in line. So, he fled the roof and instead changed into a dragon form, the smaller one, and clung onto the frosting wall, just able to see over the side to watch what was going to happen. His shirt was ripped apart, but he didn't care.

He should be safe that far away, and he could still hear and see fine. "_Life… or wedding cake?" _Mama asked darkly. Ruffy watched in horror, having never seen it before, as the three cooks started steaming. Well, it looked like steam, but was thick and white.

"Everyone who ruins my pleasure," she laughed as she pulled the "steam" out of the cooks' bodies, "I'll take your lifespan!"

The other Charlottes were looking at her in deep concern and worry. Would she destroy the castle? That idiot pirate did the worst thing he could have. And where were the accomplices? How did Luffy even get out of the cake? It didn't make sense.

"Ruffy, be ready to fly," he heard Katakuri whisper. In her shaken state, there was no doubt Big Mom could mistake Ruffy as Luffy, even if he is in dragon form. But Ruffy didn't want to leave. He wanted to see what was going to happen. But he had his wings out in case he needed to leap off of the roof and fly away.

"That Straw Hat… he can't mess with me!" More and more Luffys came out of the cake, and the yonko grew angrier as she couldn't tell which Luffy was the real one. Whatever his plan was, if Luffy was trying to make Mama angry, then he did very well. Mama was _furious_.

Ruffy was surprised the Vinsmokes hadn't left yet. They were still sitting at the table. Though Perospero was right next to them, and could lock them down by covering them in his hard candy. The wedding could still be a success if they killed the Vinsmokes. Then, the wedding would have gotten its objective, and now would just need to focus on Luffy and whoever he was with to help him.

Then the cake collapsed completely. And while Mama was shouting out about wanting to know where the real Luffy was, Ruffy looked to the side to see Bege, smirking at her. He was in on whatever was going to happen.

Ruffy flew lowly around the side of the roof and landed slightly behind Katakuri, but stayed low and behind the tablecloth off the table. "Dad, Bege is acting strange," he whispered. But their attention was taken away when the cake exploded more at the top, and the real Luffy came out.

"I'M RIGHT HERE!" he shouted, his mouth full of cake Mama was supposed to eat. He smirked down at the yonko. Ruffy stayed low so Luffy couldn't see him, and make the connection that the dragon was Ruffy. He wouldn't put it past his twin to just say "Hey, Ruffy! How could you be mean to Sanji?!" or something like that.

He ran towards the table as his clones attacked the remaining party guests. A few came up to The Charlottes and were instantly killed or kicked over the side of the Chateau. The real Luffy ran with the clones forward and towards Mama's table, but finally, someone stepped in and Katakuri caught Luffy's arms and legs with his haki covered mochi.

"This is the real one," the man growled. Ruffy had a feeling he wasn't just mad about what Luffy was doing and had done, but maybe also because he was a danger to Ruffy just by being there. It must be weird for him to glare at Luffy, the spitting image of his son. But it was because of the future he saw, mostly.

"He was aiming for Mother Caramel's photo," he growled as Luffys struggled to get out of the mochi. Ruffy's eyes widened. How did Luffy know about that? Ruffy hadn't even been told until he was ten, but Luffy knew now? That means there was definitely someone or many someones that were helping him. This wasn't him just crashing the party and taking Sanji.

There was some sort of plan. To make Big Mom mad, but who would want to do that? "How did you know about this? I thought only people close to us knew?" Katakuri asked, ahead of everyone. The Vinsmokes were still sitting at their table.

Luffy continued to struggle. "How do you know? Who told you?"

"Shut up!" Luffy shouted. "Let me go you fool!" Ruffy snarled. Yeah, he was Ruffy's brother, but he was still disrespecting his dad. And Katakuri was probably one of the smartest and strongest people on the island. Certainly smarter than Mama, who would just go on a rampage when hearing something upsetting, instead of finding out why someone knew something.

Luffy didn't answer, and Katakrui was about to slam him into the ground, when Ruffy heard someone say Luffy's name, and turned to see a mink rushing towards him. _I knew it! _Ruffy thought when Jinbei joined the battle, on Luffy's side, not Mama's. He pushed Luffy out of the mochi and then explained to Luffy about Katakuri's powers. And the weakness about liquid hindering the mochi power.

Jinbei was completely on Luffy's side, and was back talking right at Mama, explained that he wanted to leave the crew, and he was fine if this was a complete mutiny. Then he said he wanted to join Luffy's crew. Ruffy wasn't surprised one bit, though the rest of them were, besides Katakuri, who had already talked with Ruffy about it.

Jinbei hadn't been present at any of the Tea Partys before now, so no one could keep a close eye on him. Where had he even come from? He didn't come from the stairs.

Big Mom asked if Jinbei wanted to leave, which he did. Ruffy could faintly hear, over the loud beating of his heart in his ears, Morgans say, "This'll make a headline! The former Jinbei joins the Straw Hats!" Ruffy want to fly over and rip the camera snail out of his hand, but he didn't want to bring attention to himself.

"Well, okay," Big Mom replied. "Do as you like after leaving. But I need you to pay the price for leaving! You don't want to live your life in shame, do you?" Jinbei's expression didn't falter.

"Right… if you promise that you won't hurt anyone else, I'm happy to give you my lifespan! As much as you can take."

"Wait, Jinbei! What are you doing, you can't join my crew if you're dead!" Luffy protested angrily, but no one paid much attention to him.

Big Mom ignored his outburst. "I love to take people's life spans! I see… that's how much you don't like me. You'd rather die than stay where you don't want to be. I won't feel sorry for you!" she warned. Jinbei sat down in front of her, and again, Ruffy wanted to go shut Morgan up about being so excited to see someone else's lifespan taken away. No one noticed the figure that walked a ways behind him.

"Stay or life?" Mama asked in his bone chilling voice. The air grew colder around all of them.

"Life!" Jinbei replied. After a second, nothing happened. Mama even repeated her question, but nothing happened. Jinbei just kept the hard look on. Ruffy's red eyes widened when he realized that nothing was going to happen; Jinbei wasn't afraid at all.

Ruffy barely remembered the first time he met Big Mom. He was still a baby, and Katakuri had been hesitant to visit her, but needed to explain and tell her why he'd withdrawn from a mission. Ruffy was in the mochi baby carrier strapped to Katakuri when Big Mom towered over him. He couldn't reply to the "stay or life" question, but when all of her terrible haki was unleashed on him, he just stared up at her with big, dark eyes. Papa was with him and wouldn't let anyone hurt him, not even Big Mom. So Ruffy wasn't afraid of her and had never had any of his lifespan taken away.

But seeing it happen to someone feels very different. Ruffy was very scared. He hadn't seen it happen before, but now he was seeing it happen a second time in fifteen minutes. He looked to the side to Luffy, who also didn't seem fazed by the terror that was angry Big Mom. Maybe it was something to do with ".D"s. Both twins had the middle initial "D".

"Of course I'm not afraid. I'm a man who wants to be part of the future Pirate King's crew! I can't be intimidated by a mere emperor of the sea!"

A pin could drop and it would be heard with how quiet the roof of the chateau suddenly was. Jinbei sat down, with Luffy now grinning. "If you can't take my lifespan, then I'm returning the sake cup." He brought out a red sake cup and left it on the ground in front of Big Mom, who of course was not happy. "Now I'm leaving the Big Mom pirates! Thank you for all your troubles."

Ruffy distantly heard someone calling Jinbei cool, and very quiet "hmm"s from alies that Ruffy couldn't see, but could easily smell and hear. At the break in the dialogue, as everyone were silent, Ruffy could focus more, and smelled three people, one human and two animal hybrids, inside the cake. Then there was someone heading towards Big Mom's table, which no one was sitting at anymore.

But his attention was brought back to Big Mom and Jinbei. "Ma, ma ma! I'm happy for you Jinbei. But, that means you're my enemy now, right?!" she boomed and stomped on the red sake cup. He didn't make any expression as she took hold of Prometheus. "Now die!"

Jinbei didn't dodge as the sun was slammed down, making an explosion of fire. Luffy cried out in horror. "Jinbei!"

Everyone was distracted from the explosion and Jinbei and Luffy both not dying from it, but Ruffy could smell the strong scent of soap, and turned to see someone in a mask holding a hammer. Right in front of Mother Caramel's photo. Katakuri turned to look at the man holding the hammer, clearly seeing what he was going to do, but Ruffy shouted faster.

"MAMA!" Ruffy screamed, gaining their attention. "The picture!" It was too late to do anything before the hammer smashed apart the photo, breaking it into pieces.

The effect was slow. The guests and Charlotte children stared at the broken photo that meant so much to Big Mom. Ruffy had shouted too late. He knew what was going to happen next. A couple years ago, the photo had just fallen off of the table, and Mama went mad. Ruffy had always wondered who and what this mystery person was to Big Mom. But he'd never asked, and no one else knew. Not even her children.

After the shock wore off for the guests, everyone grew alarmed. "Mama?" Smoothie asked quietly. Then they all shot to the offender. To some, what they saw was like a horror show. A bony hand slowly pulled the ballon mask off to show the skeleton, Brook, or _Soul King_. Luffy's crewmate.

Ruffy's dragon head, shot to Luffy, and a couple others who cheered. Was this part of their plan?

People, justifiably, started freaking out at the walking and talking skeleton. Only the family knew how terrible this could get, and were just waiting for what was going to happen next. How bad it would get. But, Mama was occupied by asking Brook, _Soul King, _how he was alive. Most of the people left on the roof, which were many, hadn't heard about Mama having caught Brook and finding him dead the next morning. "H-how… Do you know who…. It is…. In that picture?!" She started to wobble, eyes going loopy. "M-Mother…."

Brook then asked in worry, "Why isn't she shrieking?"

By now, people caught on, and started to run when Big Mom threw a table. Ruffy jumped out of the way, still in small dragon form. There was no way he'd go back to normal in this situation, and would stay as far from his usual look as he could. "Do you have any idea who she is? Mother? And the wedding cake?!"

While she was seeming dizzy and confused, Charlottes finally started to act, and called for the Straw Hats' heads. Soul King was chased, while Ruffy could hear Luffy and Jinbei conversing about wanting Mama to go crazy and _scream. _It was terrible when she screamed like that. Ruffy wasn't there that day, but Katakuri had been, and he said it was horrible. Why would Luffy and his crew want to do that.

The fake Luffys, which were just animals changed into duplicates by Brulee (where was she anyways? No one had seen her for a long time), started attacking more of the guests. Across the mess of the roof courtyard, was the Vinsmoke family. Ruffy had been surprised they hadn't gotten up at all yet. Did none of this bother them? Even if they werent going to be assassinated, you'd think they would react by now.

Judge, the one with obnoxiously long mane of hair, _finally _reacted, and wanted their weapons to stop this nonsense themselves. Even if they walked walked away alive and with a new ally, they should at least learn to take things like this seriously! Anything with a yonko should be taken seriously and observed closely so you can hope to one day never have to worry about pissing her off! Ruffy hated these people. They just rubbed him the wrong way.

Maybe it was his animals instinct telling him that they were bad news. There were tons of Charlottes much stronger, who didn't need fancy clothes, but none of them gave Ruffy the vibes these ones did. Pudding would have been married to someone in that family. Even if Sanji wasn't like them, Pudding would still have to have them as family. And where was Pudding? Was she okay? Did Luffy's allies hurt her? He inched his way closer to the edge, and discretely jumped off of the side, gliding around the roof, below view, and smelling for Pudding.

He finally found her, being carried in Sanji's arms as he ran from the confrontation. Ruffy landed in front of him, in his larger form, and collapsed a table, his spiked tail embedded in the courtyard ground. Pudding was very out of it, but looked up when Ruffy landed.

It was like Pudding was woken from a trance that she suddenly brought out her gun and shot at the man carrying her. Sanji dropped her, and stumbled back a few yards, dodging more shots. "Stop it, Pudding-chan!"

"_Shut up!" _she shouted angrily. "Look! This is who I really am!" She continued to shoot at him. Ruffy just watched, wondering what Pudding was going to do. And what Ruffy should do. He wasn't going to be a traitor to his family and help Sanji out. Then, he'd be helping with their attempt to have everyone killed by angering Mama so much. Outsiders had no idea what Mama could do when she was angry. Especially not a crew who has never even faced a yonko before, besides Luffy meeting the former yonko briefly in a war.

"You must be shocked, and disappointed, aren't you?" Pudding demanded, all of her eyes visibly, and narrowed in anger. "Don't worry! You're gonna die soon! This is how I have fooled so many people," she said as she finally ran out of bullets.

"Even yourself?!"

"Hah?!" Pudding asked.

"You've been fooling yourself all this time, haven't you?" Sanji asked seriously. When she stopped shooting, she sat there, and even though Ruffy couldn't hear her thoughts, he knew Sanji had just pushed the right button.

The current-dragon knew that Pudding was imagining the way everyone but her siblings (and nephew _technically) _reacted to finding out her third eye. "Shut up!" she shrieked at him "An idiot like you can't… an idiot like you can't…"

Ruffy grabbed Pudding by the shoulders, and yanked back back with him when Daikufu crashed in. Ruffy gripped Pudding's shoulders tightly. "Out of the way! You blew it! You are useless," the brother shouted angrily. Ruffy's hands gripped Pudding tighter.

"Big brother Daifuku," Pudding said in alarm. Her face flushed from the insult. Ruffy hated when his aunts and uncles went cold when they were angry. He knew a lot of the time they didn't completely mean it, but it was still hard to hear.

"Nothing will start until you kill the groom," the big man said in a low voice. Ruffy stepped back from Pudding a bit. He didn't want to get involved with this and look like an accomplice. Knowing Daifuku wouldn't mistake Ruffy for Luffy, he changed back into his partial dragon mode. Suddenly, everything was louder, and things smelled stronger.

Ruffy got far away from the man, knowing the Genie would come out, and didn't want to be in its way at all. It was powerful. But when Ruffy had backed away, Pudding ran towards him. "Big brother, I'll do it! I can do it!"

"You couldn't do it in that moment… you've got no chance now!" Daifuku shouted. Though Ruffy wanted Sanji to get away, he had given up on the thought of him leaving when he arrived at the Tea Party. Ruffy wasn't going to help him now. Not after knowing that he and Luffy's accomplices would end up killing many of his family or guests if they get in the way of a rampaging Big Mom, like they seemed to _want._

Daifuku hit Pudding across the face, hard, and Ruffy ran to catch her. Sanji tried to get there first, but he was fighting Daifuku's genie. He didn't have time to be a gentleman, he should try and protect himself. Ruffy picked up Pudding, ignoring the tearing sounds his claws made to the expensive fabric as he hoisted her up.

"Wait, Ruffy," Pudding said. Ruffy stopped.

"Pudding, we can't help them! We agreed to that!" he said in a hushed voice. He didn't want anyone to hear them. "I won't help them and be a traitor, Pudding. Do you know what they're trying to do? They broke Mother Caramel's photo, and want Mama to scream! They want to kill people, and this is probably an assassination attempt, with Bege being a part of it," Ruffy said quickly.

In the distance he could hear others fighting and screaming. "_Gum-gum, jet gatling!"_

That was his own voice.

"_Fishman karate: sharkskin palm thrust!"_

Jinbei.

"_Gum-gum, jet stomp!"_

From what he could hear, the culprits were still waiting for Mama to start screaming. Ruffy heard another voice confirm what he'd thought. _Bege _was in on this. "Don't interfere with Sanji's fight! I won't help you if you betray!" Ruffy shouted and then flew straight back to the main area, where Mama was still swaying.

Ruffy hoped Pudding wouldn't betray. He couldn't fight the whole family if they wanted to hurt or even kill Pudding, so he desperately wanted her to give up on Sanji.

"DAD!" Ruffy screamed from above. "BEGE IS IN ON IT!"

He looked down to see a very angry and panicked Bege. He pulled out a gun, and Ruffy did as Katakuri said: "Don't fly above him!" and Ruffy dropped back down, landing behind a fallen giant cupcake. If he had continued to fly, Ruffy would have been shot, probably with a special gun that would penetrate even Ruffy's thick skin.

The partial dragon teen kept his back against the cupcake. "This is a mess!" he hissed to himself.

"It's been longer than three seconds," a child voice said in concern.

"What's going on?" a female voice in the same direction asked.

"She isn't shrieking at all!"

Ruffy had started to head in that direction, when he heard shouting above all other voices, and saw that the Vinsmokes were finally restrained. Were they as stupid as Sanji and didn't leave when they could?

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Judge's voice echoed so everyone could hear him. "How could you do this to us?!" Ruffy hurried over so they were in view, while he was also hidden from enemies and out of Big Mom's sight.

The family was still at their doomed table, but now they were trapped there. The others were each quiet as the father shouted some more. "Tell me this is a mistake! Big Mom!" he struggled in the hardened candy trap made by Perospero. Ruffy also heard Sanji say that "it wasn't supposed to happen like this.''

There were loud sounds and shouts coming from all directions, but Ruffy couldn't change back to his human form. Luffy was still there, and he was surrounded by people who would easily mistake the two. But all the sounds were getting hard to deal with.

"I trusted you! Even the underworld is ruled with honor and decency!" Ruffy scoffed. These were pirates, what did they expect? "Say something!" Judge shouted again. Of course, Mama was in no state to speak, as she was still swaying and in her own world about Mother Caramel's picture. Instead, the red haired Vinsmoke replied.

"It's not cool to act like that now, father," he said with a light voice, like this was someone else's problem and it weren't them with guns pointed to their heads. "We're doomed. We're bound in candy."

Ruffy watched them with furrowed brows. The hell?

The green haired one spoke next, "They took all of our weapons. We don't even have the Raid Suits." He laughed. Ruffy assumed the Raid Suits were the cans they had been so upset about being taken from them.

"We've totally been set up," the last man said. "I guess we aimed too high." All three sons laughed. Well, they didn't seem to concerned. Should be easy to kill them now if they won't fight back.

"WHAT'S SO FUNNY, YOU BASTARDS?" Judge demanded of his laughing children. The only one who stayed calm was Reiju, who Ruffy had met before. Hadn't shared any words with her, but they'd been in the same room.

Perospero was always one to taunt his victims, and took joy in saying things like, "Oh boy, I've never seen such a pathetic assasination as this! This is more like just violence instead. _Lick._" He laughed. "Don't you think so, _Judge?"_

The main Vinsmoke shut his eyes tight together. "I have… devoted my whole life… I've devoted everything! Towards getting revenge on all of the countries in the North Blue! To restore the Germa Empire! BIG MOM! Say something, Big Mom!" he screamed.

Of course, Mama was still not present at the moment, and didn't reply. Ruffy was surprised at how long she was staying in this "temporary calm" state she was in.

Judge started to cry. "Oh? Look at yourself," Perospero taunted.

Ruffy could hear scattered voices nonchalantly saying things like "So Germa's going to be wiped out?" or "This will make big news!" No one seemed to really care. Though, Ruffy did have to feel pity when Morgans started snapping photos of Vinsmoke Judge's teary face, and when everyone started laughing about that fact.

_Just kill them already, _Ruffy thought. _Before Big Mom shrieks and there won't be a chance to!_

Judge cried out again for Big Mom to tell him this wasn't happening. "It's no use," Perospero said. "Look at her. She's confused by a series of shocking events. It made me a little nervous when the portrait of Mother Caramel was broken, but the intensity of her anger pushed her over the edge of insanity, so we're safe."

Ruffy looked to Katakuri, who hadn't moved from where he was after attacking Luffy. He looked tense and angry, but it was hard to look anything but when you don't see half of his face. The Sweet Commander was watching Mama carefully.

Ruffy turned away when Perospero continued to taunt, and went to find those three voices he hadn't heard in a couple minutes. He couldn't find anyone by scent, as the Tea Party had already smelled strongly of sweets and sugar. But now there was smoke, gun powder, blood, sweat, spilled drinks, and the generally diverse smell of a large number of people.

He looked back to see Katakuri wasn't in the same spot, he was slowly walking towards Luffy and Bege, who was still putting on the act of having captured Straw Hat. It seemed like Katakuri was the only one to hear Ruffy, though he thought he shouted it quite loudly.

"-san, listen to me!"

"Huh?"

"Big Mom has had too many shocks in quick succession, so she doesn't know how to focus her anger! Let's show her the broken portrait again!" Brook said, and Ruffy was momentarily alarmed to see only his head was there. But, Luffy had told him that Brook was unable to die. When they weren't enemies and could freely talk to each other.

But after this, Ruffy was angry with his twin. Pudding might be killed for treason if she helped Sanji anymore. Some of his aunts and uncles will die or already have, and Ruffy was going to be in agony if Mama started to scream. If his dad wasn't going to keep that from happening, Ruffy would have to come out and do something.

But he couldn't bring himself to walk right out in front of Big Mom to hide the photo. He didn't want to die.

"I'll do it if you say so!" Luffy's voice said with conviction.

"isn't it too late for that?" Bege, the traitor, asked.

Then, Luffy finally noticed who was coming towards him.

"It's that guy from earlier!" Luffy said.

"Katakuri… Well, actually keep that plan. Katakuri is looking pale!" Bege said, as if it was the best thing to happen. "That means he saw a future where things get messy."

Ruffy looked at his father, and he did look unnerved. "Don't do anything, Ruffy," the teen heard under Katakuri's breath. Ruffy had inched his way around the nearest fallen piece of candy, and was ready to tackle Luffy when he got up. But he stopped because Katakuri told him not to.

"Go Straw Hat!" Ruffy, was shaking and sweaty. It was now or never that he grab onto Luffy and stop him, but his father said not to. He frantically looked to the man and pointed at Luffy with insistence. _I can stop him! _the look said.

"No. It's already too late," the man replied quiet enough for only Ruffy to hear. Ruffy slapped his hand to his head. He couldn't do anything now but watch. He was told to stay there. He felt so useless. His warning was too late, and no one heard his second one. He left Pudding to probably betray the family, and now he just stood there, watching and unable to do anything.

"The people of the allied forces! All of you, get your Invisible Symphonia ready!"

What the hell was that? He didn't see any of the enemies in front of him pull out any weapons. Then he heard the childish voice from before. "Oh the earplugs!"

Ruffy immediately shoved his sharp fingers in his ears, nicking the skin, but not too bad. He had nothing else to put in them, and watched as Katakuri approached Bege. "Bege! Shoot Straw Hat Luffy to death, now!"

"Heh. I refuse. You can only see slightly ahead into the future," Bege said, but Ruffy left before he could hear the rest, as he could smell Sanji sprinting over to the main scene as fast as he could. Katakuri had told him not to do anything to stop Luffy. He could at least try and stop Sanji. He had to try and do _something _helpful.

Ruffy leapt into the air at just the right time and speed so Sanji's observation haki didn't sense him and yanked his foot down, throwing him to the ground and crashing into a table. Ruffy was in partial mode so he didn't take up too much space and it was easier in close combat.

He didn't wait for Sanji to come forward and grabbed onto his shoulder and pulled him closer, punching him so hard in the face Ruffy could swear he heard a tooth crack. Sanji kicked him in the stomach, but Ruffy barely felt it.

"You all should have left while you could!" Ruffy hissed in his face. He twisted Sanji around and slammed his face into the ground. "If Mama goes crazy, you're gonna get a lot of people killed!"

Sanji threw him off and jumped up to kick Ruffy in his head, but the Charlotte stopped him, catching Sanji's leg and lifting him up. He yanked Sanji closer so he could say, "We wanted you to leave! That's why I let you hear what Pudding was saying, so you could get it and _leave!"_

Sanji's face hardened. "Then why are you stopping me now?" he asked, as he tried to get out of Ruffy's painful grip.

"You lost your chance for my help. I may be Luffy's biological brother, but you're trying to wreck my home and family I've grown up with. I won't kill Luffy, but I've already done what I could to save you. I won't betray," Ruffy snarled.

Sanji was able to break out of Ruffy's grip, and shoved Ruffy down to the ground, and tried to get away again. Ruffy quickly turned into his dragon form and smashed Sanji down with his entire weight, effectively trapping him. Ruffy snarled, the loud rumble in his chest sounding extremely loud to Sanji.

Ruffy pressed on back leg onto Sanji's ankle. He tried to get out of the position, as the dragon was slowly attempting to break the bone and keep Sanji from behind able to walk correctly. He didn't want to be the one who officially killed him.

"Let me go!" Sanji shouted.

"No!" Ruffy roared into his ear. Sanji heating up his trapped leg didn't hurt the dragon as fire didn't work on him, since he could breathe it. Ruffy almost never used that, though, as burned bodies were a no-no for him, however convenient that might be. It wouldn't help that he would be able to smell the burned flesh, too.

Ruffy was a second away from breaking Sanji's ankle when he heard, "Go to hell, Katakuri," and then a barrage of gunshots. Despite knowing his father would be fine against bullets, he was startled for a moment, and Sanji took that to his advantage, and brought his other leg under Luffy's belly and kicked as hard as he could, kicking the dragon up a few feet, just enough for Sanji to escape through.

After a moment of coughing, the dragon got up and flew after Sanji, who was very fast. Daifuku, who Sanji seemed to have gotten away from ran at his side. Ruffy roared and tackled Sanji, who was again able to weedle himself from Ruffy's grip.

In the moment where Ruffy couldn't fight, Daifuku took over, and his genie slashed at Sanji, who blocked it with a kick. Ruffy understood then why Sanji had stayed after he shouted at Reiju to run away.

"You're saving them?! You're risking yours and your friends' lives to save these assholes?" Ruffy demanded.

"Sanji? Save us?" Yonji, the green haired Vinsmoke asked with a derisive laugh. "And who are you calling an asshole, dragon. If I weren't tied up at the moment I'd kick your ass."

"See?!" Ruffy shouted.

Daifuku's genie finally caught him at the moment Ruffy let back, and Sanji was pinned to the ground. "Run!" he shouted to his family. The children were still looking unconcerned, and the father was still crying.

Perospero still hadn't killed any of them, and he knew Katakuri wanted him to get on with it as much as, probably more than, Ruffy did. But he was having fun taunting the powerless man. "Such a touching camaraderie. _Lick." _Perospero leaned down next to Judge's face. "But it's a little too late now. Now, it's fun time!" Still, there were no gunshots.

"Uncle Perospero! Get on with it, Straw Hat is trying to show Mama the portrait again!" Ruffy boomed through his big lungs. But he said it too late, as they all heard Katakuri shout, "Mama! No!"

Then Big Mom finally screamed, and Ruffy fell to the ground, partial mode, and shrieked as well as blood poured out of his ears. Guests and lower level Pirates fell to the ground, unconscious from the haki that came with the loud scream. Chairs were blown over and tables flipped.

Ruffy barely had time to notice that Sanji quickly put earplugs in before he was unconscious from the pain in his head and ears. It wouldn't have been as bad a if he had been in human form.


	5. A Losing Battle

**HOLY CRAP THIS IS A LONG CHAPTER! Lots of stuff happens in it. Probably the longest chapter I have ever had for any story, over 7,000 words long!**

**So, since Ruffy is pretty much an OC, even if he is supposed to be Luffy's twin, there are going to be sarcastic moments about the plot that I just couldn't help but voice. Especially during the fight that will happen between Katakuri and Luffy, I added a lot to that fight to not make it boring. It won't happen for awhile, but I hope those who read this look forward to it! There were part sof this chapter that were hard to write, like the Vinsmokes vs. Charlottes as it was difficult to add in Luffy to that part, but I hope it ends up okay. Enjoy~**

* * *

Ruffy was only out for a few seconds before Katakuri was there, ignoring all the enemies as he shoved mochi into his son

's bleeding ear canals. He opened his eyes, breathing heavily and wincing in pain.

"Are you alright?!" Katakuri screamed to be heard through the plugs and the wailing from Big Mom. Ruffy shakily nodded his head, but still wasn't able to stand up under the haki. He was still conscious, but he wasn't strong enough to move through it like Katakuri was. Yet even he couldn't move anymore and had to hold his hands to his ears.

By the time Ruffy was awake, the Straw Hats had broken the Vinsmokes out of the candy and given them their raid suits along with ear plugs. Ruffy was the only one with ear plugs in on his side, but his sense of hearing was too extreme that it was as if he were one of the other children listening to the scream. So, he was immobilized as well.

The culprits and accomplices were all staring at Big Mom as she cried, and looked excited when they shot rocket launchers at her. Ruffy didn't know why they thought that would work. And it didn't.

Horror dawned on the enemies and during just a small burst of her cries and conquerors haki, Katakuri was able to make his own earplugs and then distribute them to the others. It was hard for them to take their hands away from their ears while Big Mom screamed, but once they were in, the game was on again.

This time Ruffy was the only one still immobilized, and couldn't do anything around him. He was helpless as he tried to stand, so Katakuri made a sling on his back and stuck his son ungracefully in it. Now he was out of harm's way, and wouldn't be taken out easily lying on the ground.

After all, there were still bad guys around, and in particular, the Vinsmoke children had wanted to fight Ruffy in dragon form. Would they be so despicable that they'd attack him while he was a sitting duck? Well, that's what they tried to do to them. So who knows?

Ruffy could barely hear anyone, or what they were saying, but could see by Bege's face, that their plan had failed. Whatever they tried to shoot at Mama, she had not been killed or even injured by.

Bege's horror and fearful expression dawned on all of the pirates and Vinsmokes that wanted to kill Mama, and they each knew they were screwed. Then they tried to run. None of them had any way to fight back now that surprise was lost and the Big Mom Pirates weren't mobilized.

To say they were each having a very bad day was an understatement, as their escape plan failed as well. Finally, gaining back to favor in the fight concerning the position they were in, the Charlotte children went after them. Walking slowly was all they needed to do, as the enemy pirates had no backup escape plan.

Ruffy wished Mama would stop screaming already so he could do anything but be carried on Katakuri's back. It was embarrassing, but his family knew what was wrong. How super enhanced senses can _suck._

At least Flampe wasn't around. And he worried about what had happened to Pudding after he left her. Had one of the bad guys gone back and hurt her when no one was looking? Or did she betray? Ruffy honestly couldn't decide which one was worse or better.

The pirates were still running when Bege, the traitor, stopped. It was sudden, so the others stopped too, and then watched as the Fire Tank Pirate captain transformed, getting bigger and bigger until he was even larger than the collapsed wedding cake had been.

"Whoa," Ruffy said, not hearing Katakuri telling him not to be amazed by it. The man sighed, but was glad Ruffy hadn't gotten hurt permanently. He wouldn't be deaf for long, but he'd need to change back into human form. Looking exactly like the enemy.

Well, Katakuri would just need to stick with him so no one attempts to accidentally kill their nephew.

Before anyone could attack, the Castle told it's allies to take shelter in it, and dozens and dozens of Fire Tank Pirates exited it, guns firing. What Ruffy found the most impressive was that there had been horses _inside of _Bege.

Katakuri didn't move when the gun fire started, and Ruffy just shifted to be completely behind the much larger man so the bullets wouldn't hit him. At the same time the mochi man shot out a fist of mochi, elongating it and grabbing hold of poor Brulee, in Caesar's bag and keeping it gripped tightly.

"You're not taking Brulee," Katakuri grumbled, snapping the arm back and dragging that annoying gas-man back down to him before he could get inside Castle Bege.

Despite wanting to take Caeser down as well, they got Brulee back when the backpack snapped. "Thank you, brother!" Brulee sobbed.

"Are you okay, Brulee?!" Ruffy shouted, unsure if she could hear him or not, and couldn't tell if she answered. Mama was still screaming, and now Ruffy was the only one who couldn't move or fight. It was extremely frustrating.

Luffy had to come along and ruin everything. Ruffy didn't know how he felt about anyone anymore. This mess wouldn't have happened, and would have gone quite smoothly if no one had attempted to steal back the groom who didn't leave when he could have, and Bege hadn't attempted to kill Mama.

Honestly, in Ruffy's ideal situation, the Straw Hats here, since it was clear that not all of them were present, should have left with Sanji, safe and sound, and left the Vinsmokes there to be killed. And of course Bege and Jinbei wouldn't have betrayed and they could all eat in happiness, even as five dead bodies bled out at one of the tables. And Mama would be happy, not screaming so loud it made Ruffy's ears bleed!

"Alright, Ruffy, you can change back to normal for now!" Katakuri shouted. Ruffy barely heard it, but shifted back into human form, breathing out a sigh when the pain lessened, but still hurt and was still feeling sick from the sound and unable to move. So changing back did help a bit, but not much. Ruffy still couldn't do anything until Big Mom stopped screaming and came to her senses. Feeling like they wouldn't be needing to go anywhere at the moment, since the enemies were sitting ducks, Ruffy dropped down off of his dad's back and to Brulee. He made sure to be out of the way as Katakuri shot jelly beans into the traitor pirate crew.

What a _dumb_ way to die.

Ruffy honestly didn't feel like saving the woman and two animal creatures that were caught behind everyone. He should have gone and dealt with them while he could. When all three were caught by older Charlotte siblings, Ruffy didn't even think twice about saving them. It was then that he looked up and he and Luffy's gaze first met.

Luffy grinned at seeing him, momentarily distracted, but froze at the anger and hateful look Ruffy was sending him. This wasn't how Ruffy would have liked to have met Luffy. It wasn't as brothers, they were enemies. And it made Ruffy sad. Angry and very, very sad.

Ruffy was the first to look away, and hurt dawned on Luffy's face. He clearly must have thought that Ruffy would totally be on his side when he came to this place, Ruffy's home, and did his best to mess it up. Luffy should have taken his crew members are left when they could. Then, maybe Luffy and Ruffy could have met under happier circumstances, but here they were at war.

No one really noticed since his arm was already at his side, Katakuri gently pat Ruffy's hair. He knew how Ruffy must have been feeling. He didn't need to look down, he could see it clearly on his twin's face. It was weird to think of the enemy pirate as a technical step-sort-of-son.

Ruffy, who stood still, as straight and confident as he could even when he was still being affected by Mama's scream, hadn't been paying attention to the table that was _supposed _to be the Germa 66's death bed. So, he didn't witness the four Vinsmoke children, besides Sanji, take off their clothes and change in an eccentric way with new outfits out of their canisters. Their _Raid _Suits.

If he had been paying attention, Ruffy would have been amazed by it. But, even with all the ruckus they made back there, fighting with their fancy tech, he still didn't turn around, and was back to staring at Luffy, who openly was amazed at the Germa 66 family.

It seemed Ruffy was more upset about meeting this way than Luffy was, and it stung. Luffy had family. He had connections to his biological family, and could ask Garp questions, or even maybe someday talk to his dad. Ruffy didn't have that. Luffy had been his only connection and now that was gone.

He felt weak at it, but suddenly Ruffy _desperately_ wanted to go home and fall asleep in his bed. He wanted to forget this even happened. But it would be a long day, because he wasn't going back home by himself, and there wasn't any way Katakuri would go back with him before the threat was eliminated.

Plus, there wasn't any way for Ruffy to leave if Mama's screamed reached further than the castle rooftop.

Ruffy's sulking ended the moment all of the enemies were inside Castle Bege. Once Luffy was out of sight, Ruffy got the will to fight again. Fight once he was able. When was she going to stop screaming, Ruffy was getting a strong headache.

Castle Bege's one eye snapped to Mama, and immediately a turret of cannons turned towards Mama's direction and shot out cannons. Perospero was first to act, and easily created a candy wall to block the cannon fire.

Ruffy ignored it and turned to Brulee, untying her hands with a smile.

"They used my powers the whole time!" Brulee cried, but no one could hear her, so all Ruffy did was pat her head comfortingly and wipe away the tears. He was startled by the sudden arm that was pulled back from Ruffy's head, and looked up to see his dad had seamlessly, from that spot, plugged all the cannons with mochi. Now Bege had no way to fight back. And the enemies were completely helpless once candy coated the limbs and now the castle couldn't move an inch.

Brulee soon stood with all of them, looking forward to revenge, but Katakuri was not happy. He cared about Brulee very much, but her power was what made all of this possible. Luffy must have come out from a mirror that was inside the cake. Not to mention that power was going to be used as an escape. As well as where the enemies had all hidden.

"How could you have been used by them so much?" he growled. Ruffy could barely hear him, and only because he was standing so close to the mochi mochi man.

Brulee grew pale, and quickly replied, "I'm a victim big brother! Just kick their asses already!"

_Finally, _Mama stopped crying, and Ruffy could take out his earplugs. His ears still hurt, but it wasn't overwhelming. Knowing the Ruffy wasn't a sitting duck anymore, and could change back into partial mode, Katakuri approached big Mom.

"Mama, Bege has betrayed us," the mochi man said darkly. Big Mom stopped her sniffling.

"_Betrayal?"_ For a moment she didn't do anything else, but it wasn't long before her terrible haki came over her and even cracked the ground beneath her and around her. Her children all flinched and started to sweat. Ruffy walked backwards into the crowd, behind Smoothie's long legs, so he wasn't spotted by her, as Luffy wasn't in sight anymore. "I won't forgive them!"

The ground still broke beneath her feet as she approached Castle Bege, housing the traitors, pirates, and Vinsmokes. Ruffy couldn't see the castle lasting long as Mama punched it. The people inside must have been terrified when Big Mom looked inside one of the windows. Ruffy didn't feel sorry for them. "You guys! Come out now!" she yelled. "Bege! Straw Hat! Come out!" and she punched it again. "Bege! Straw Hat!"

With Ruffy's ears healing already, he could hear much better now, and could faintly hear the people inside. He couldn't make out words, but heard someone, Bege, grunting in pain. "Smoothie, will you tell Mama that when she punches the castle, Bege feels it?" Ruffy asked quietly. Smoothie understood why he didn't want to say it himself.

"Mama! If you hurt the castle, Bege is hurt, too! It's only a matter of time before it breaks," Smoothie called loud enough for Big Mom to hear.

"Oh? Good to know!" and the giant yonko started to beat the castle in various spots. "All of you come out of the castle! Show yourself you fools! So you betrayed me, you fool?! Bege! Come out, Bege, Straw Hat!" she continued to scream. "COME OUT!"

Her children all watched from a ways away, not wanting to get even close to her as she was this angry. But at least they could move around without the mochi earplugs anymore.

It was then a surprise when the window opened, and _Chiffon _showed up. "Mama, it's me! Bege is my husband and we have a child! Please forgive him and let it go!"

Ruffy didn't know what she expected to happen other than Big Mom not caring. It's hard to let it go when someone tried to kill you, ruined the special wedding cake, and saved who was supposed to be executed.

"Chiffon!" Mama shouted in surprise. "You look exactly like Lola as always!"

Ruffy had been sad when Lola had left. Pudding had been really close to her, and was very upset when she left. But at least she had still had one friend, and Chiffon had left her as well to be married to Bege, the traitor. Did that mean Chiffon was a traitor? Honestly, Ruffy wouldn't be surprised. Mama had beaten her a lot because she had the same face as Lola.

He hoped Lola was never found and would not be killed slowly and painfully. None of the Charlotte children (or grandchildren) knew why Mama was not allowed to speak to any giants, and why they refused to come and be part of Totto Land. Once, one of her young sons asked, and he was put in solitary confinement for a month, but was at least not killed.

"I told you not to show your face!" Big Mom shouted, bringing Ruffy back to the present. She was about to punch the window Chiffon was standing in front of when two hands gripped her shoulders and brought her back, saving her from probably death.

But, this reaction terrified Ruffy. He had the same face as probably one of the most hated people in the world. Lola ran away, and Mama had hated Chiffon for that. What Luffy had done in the last few _hours _surely surpassed Lola refusing a marriage. Luffy wrecked the Tea Party/wedding, destroyed the cake, broke Mother Caramel's portrait, and tried to help kill the yonko.

Would Ruffy ever get to show his face again, or would he need to always be in partial form? Well, if it was to keep him from being killed, that would be for the best.

"Were you conspiring with them to kill me too, Chiffon!?" Mama roared. "You're not gonna live to eat tomorrow's sweets!" As Big Mom continued to try and destroy the castle, the Charlotte children began to talk.

"When the castle is destroyed, and Bege dies, they'll all be thrown out of there," Amande said in her monotone voice, a cigarette in her mouth like always.

Dairuku said, "Don't let anyone get away!"

"Firetank Pirates. The Straw Hats…" Tabet muttered.

"Plus Jinbei, and Germa 66," Oven said next.

"They messed up the wedding, and the Tea Party," Katakuri replied angrily. He glanced at Ruffy, who was still hiding behind Smoothie, and his son had a blank face on. He no longer wore the sad or angry glare. The man sighed and looked back to in front of him.

Maybe it was because Luffy was no longer in view that his face showed no emotion.

"I can't believe we've been taken so lightly," Smoothie said as she pulled her sword out of the sheath on her back. "Let's hang them up to make an example for others!"

Even though Luffy could very likely be killed, Ruffy kept the blank expression on. With a window now open to the castle, Ruffy could hear better. "Bege is getting worse," he commented. "I can hear him. I think he said he's gonna lose soon."

Smoothie looked to him. "Your senses are very helpful," she commented. "So, soon, huh?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure he said his defenses are no match for Mama. They're all freaking out, though it's hard to hear most of their words. Like there's something around the place that makes it quieter. I don't know how to explain it," Ruffy replied.

"They're shouting now. Luff- _Straw Hat _wants to come out and fight Mama. 'Kick her ass'," a couple of the Charlottes laughed and scoffed at that. "Oh my- oh jeez, apparently they've gotten a copy of our Ponegliff."

"What?!" Smoothie shouted. "But Mama said he stopped him before he did! And there was nothing he was holding or carrying that would have hidden it. Did they say anything else about it? How they got it?" Ruffy shook his head.

"All she said was that they should leave, as the got Sanji back, saved his asshole family, and got a copy of our Ponegliff."

"Don't tell Mama yet. No one tell Mama yet," Smoothie said loud enough for those around her, the stronger and older Charlottes, to hear her. They had all heard what Luffy had said, and most were too shocked to speak. They were going to stop these damn pirates or die trying. It would be a disgrace to have let them slip away, especially with a Ponegliff!

"They're heading to Wano after this."

Katakuri sighed. "Then we'll chase after them. Keep listening as best as you can, Ruffy."

"Okay," Ruffy replied, and closed his eyes, only focusing on hearing. He could hear them, and he focused on Bege's voice the most, though Luffy was quite loud as well. "If the castle falls over, everyone inside will be fine and only Bege will be hurt. Everything inside is fine. Bege is the only one being affected. Even if he turns back into human form, the ones still inside will be safe. If they stay in there, no one can get the others," Ruffy said, eyes still closed.

"So, crippling Bege will still not affect those who are still inside?" Oven asked, who was a few people away from him.

"Yeah, I think so. His plan is… to turn back into a human with everyone still inside, and then Caesar will grab him and fly away. So many traitors it's crazy," Ruffy finished quietly. "It's like we can't trust anyone. Even our own family. After all, Chiffon helped out with the assassination attempt."

"And Pudding didn't shoot Vinsmoke Sanji. I wonder where she is," Katakuri said. He still didn't know about Pudding and Ruffy trying to help them.

"...Pudding shot Reiju, Sanji's sister, in the leg the day before the wedding. Then, she bragged to her all about their plan. And I found Sanji outside listening through the window. He was gone by the time I got outside." And it was the truth. "They could have left, and the Vinsmokes still could have been killed.

"But they stayed. Not only to save Sanji's family, but also attempt to kill Mama… Idiots. They should have just left. Doesn't Straw Hat even _care_ about his crew? Endangering all of their lives to save people like the Vinsmokes? How the hell does that make sense? I've been hearing them, and they were _awful_ to him.

"I just don't understand it," Ruffy finished. He could feel his dad's eyes on him, probably angry that Ruffy didn't tell him about this. Ruffy would apologize later. The others just listened in silence.

"Idiots. All of them," Oven growled in a low voice.

Ruffy kept his eyes closed, listening. He could hear the raised voices the most. "Sanji saved his family because his adoptive father would have been ashamed if he let his blood family die."

Daifuku scoffed. "Still not a good reason in my book."

Everyone were quiet so ruffy could hear better, even if Big Mom was making it a bit more difficult. And his ears still hurt, but he didn't pay attention to that.

"... Germa 66 is about to come out and fight until Bege and everyone else gets away. We should probably prepare to fight now," Ruffy said.

"You're the only one who can fly, and Genie can't follow them too long. You should chase after Bege if his plan even works," Daifuku said. He looked at Ruffy biting his lip. "We know he's technically your brother, but what he's done, just today, should override the feeling of you not hurting him. We get it, but you gotta step back and look at things rationally," he finished, actually sounding sincere, which was strange considering how clearly angry he was in this situation.

"I understand," Ruffy said in a hard voice.

"Ruffy, you don't need to be the one to kill him. Capture Bege, alive. I'm sure Mama would like to have fun with them all," Katakuri said with tact.

"Okay. Germa is coming out ready to fight any moment now. They're playing defense, not offense," Ruffy said, getting ready to shift into full dragon form and chase after them.

"We have an advantage. We know their plans," Smoothie said.

"Now!" Luffy shouted a second before Bege became human again, the Vinsmokes and Caesar jumped out. He ran out of the crowd and shifted instantly, trying to grab Bege as fast as possible.

Ruffy was blocked by the Vinsmoke siblings, but he easily swatted them away with his massive hands, and slammed his tail into their sides on his way through their little barricade. The rest of the Charlottes who had been in the crowd ran after Luffy and the traitors.

When Luffy shot out of Bege, Ruffy almost turned around to grab him and Sanji, but he heard Katakuri shout for him to keep going. Ruffy roared and followed Bege. He was a bit off balance with his ears hurting again, the wind in them from flying causing annoying and overwhelming almost beating sounds.

He could hear Luffy's friends screaming for Luffy to come back, even as Caesar flew away. He was closer to her when Germa 66 caught up with him, as Ruffy had slowed to stay on balance, though he could catch them easily if the Vinsmoke siblings werent being annoying pests.

The blue haired one tried electrocuting him, but his scales were much too hard and thick for that to hurt, or the powerful punches from the green haired one. Ruffy tried to ignore them, but the red haired asshole came up to him and punched him, shouting, "Sparking Figure!" An explosion against Ruffy's side didn't hurt, but was powerful enough to send him rearing to the side, crashing into one of the fallen cupcakes.

Ruffy was angry with it, as it had embarrassed him, and opened his mouth to use his own fire. It was hotter than this Vinsmoke's flames, as it was blue, and burned the tip of his cape off when he dodged. He looked shocked that his indestructible cape was charred in the corner.

"Don't get in my way!" Ruffy roared, the sound deafening and echoing across the island. The Vinsmoke's froze for a moment, but it was enough to get far from them. And soon they were occupied with other Charlottes attacking them. They beat them easily, which Ruffy was embarrassed for them.

Caesar was almost over the wall when Oven stepped up in front of them. "Ruffy! I want to do it! Go back!" he shouted.

"But dad told me-" Ruffy began.

"They attacked my mother! I want to be the one to take them down!" Oven roared. Ruffy didn't want to get in an argument with him, for once he got angry, he melted the things around him. Including all of Luffy's toys when he was five when the man found out Ruffy had been bullied by a neighbor.

"O-Okay," Ruffy conceded, and dropped back.

"Take care of Germa and help your aunts and uncles!"

"Okay!" and Ruffy flew back, pouting even in dragon form, but Germa really was giving them all a hard time. The dragon would take the explosion one down first. He could hear Oven yell at Caesar, saying, "You fools! Anyone who rebels against Mama… will be burned to death by me!"

The green haired Vinsmoke flew right past Ruffy to get in the way of Oven, and Caesar flew off again. Ruffy growled, and abandoned the Germa siblings who were still dealing with others, and turned around, flying right past Oven and green hair.

"Seems like we got away from Oven safely -AHHH!" Caesar screamed when he realized Ruffy was coming after them, faster but not at full speed.

"Ugh!" Luffy moaned in irritation when Daifuku now got in his way. Well, whatever. Daifuku had a bad temper as well, so Ruffy flew right past all of them and landed on the edge of the roof, planning on blocking their escape if they got caught up by another Vinsmoke. They sure were annoying. Like flies they won't leave you alone.

Speak of the devil, the blue fly showed up.

Now, Ruffy was getting _really_ irritated. _Another _one of his aunts and uncles got in his way; Smoothie. Red haired fly was back now. They were pretty irritating, too, and Ruffy was becoming in an even worse mood than he had before.

Apparently, Ruffy was hidding by a fallen chunk of cake since he heard Bege say, "Get us over the wall already!"

"That's the only thing on my mind!" Caesar cried. Ruffy didn't know if they had remembered that one of the Charlottes could fly long distances. Going over the wall wouldn't do anything if Ruffy was still around.

Ruffy was glad he seemed to be out of view, as Vinsmoke Judge approached and dealt with the ones following Caesar.

"If I make it over the wall, I'll survive!" the gas man cried.

"Oh, really?" Ruffy asked. Growing in side until the wall started to crumble underneath him. "It was a good plan. Keeping everyone inside of you while Caesar takes you away? And the Vinsmokes getting in an argument and settling it helping you out? They sure are annoying pests," Ruffy said in his deep voice.

"Damn it! You were listening the whole time?!" Bege asked angrily.

"Yup!"

"I won't let you get over the wall," a voice said behind him.

"Uncle Perospero, let me deal with them! Everyone is getting in my way!" Ruffy shouted in true anger. "I can get them just fine! Please, just go deal with the Germas! See, they're right there!"

Perospero completely ignored him, building a candy wall, literally blocking Ruffy from going back to fight.

"Jerk!" Ruffy shouted, though he was sure he wasn't heard over the candy wall. He was just about to grab the traitors the moment they crossed the wall.

"Not you, too, dad!" Ruffy shouted as Katakuri appeared in front of them.

"You took too long," he said calmly.

"Only because everyone kept getting in my way!" Ruffy shouted back. "Fine, I'll wait on the cake and be _backup _in case those Germa 66 flies stall you, too," Ruffy huffed, and landed on a lower level of the cake, not far from where Katakuri was blocking the escapees.

Then, not even needing to see, he heard an explosion and the sound of the red head fly going to his dad. Well, _now _could Ruffy do as he was instructed? He flew up and snatched Caesar and Bege with his giant hand. "Finally got you! Now, let's take you back to Mama," Ruffy said. He heard screaming from inside and crying from Caesar.

"Ruffy! We're your brother's crew! Don't kill us!" a young voice said from inside.

Ruffy replied by saying, "I won't kill my brother, but I have no connection to any of you!" he roared. He flew around the circumference of the cake, low enough for no one to see them, especially not the pests that kept getting in everybodies way.

"Luffy will hate you!"

"Yeah, well I'm not so fond of him, either right now!" Ruffy said. "Trying to kill my family? Trying to destroy my home? Trying to kill the only person who holds this whole place together? Our lives would be ruined if she was killed!"

Just then, he heard an explosion, and looked up to see heavy chunks of cake falling towards him. And it landed on his back, crushing him between another piece of cake and the one on his back. More cake fell as the explosion from _something _dropped cake on top of him.

"Ugh!" he grunted. His hand opened as he was crushed, and let them get away. He could hear them cheering very lightly as his heart beat so loud he could hear it in his ears. He couldn't breathe under the weight, and shifted back to his partial form, trying to dig his way out. He was being crushed and knew he had broken an arm, so was only digging with one.

"Dad!" he cried, though it was completely muffled. He had only broken a bone before he had eaten the devil fruit. He blew fire, trying to melt the cake, only the liquid, burning cake dripped onto him, making his sting on his back.

He shifted back into dragon form, though he couldn't get big. He was only the size of a carriage. "Someone help!" he roared, trying fruitlessly to dig his way out. He gasped for air. What lame was to die. Suffocated under cake. He could hear the shifting of something, and wondered if the whole castle would fall on him. He had to get out. It was so dark, and his arm hurt like hell.

He really thought he was going to die, until he heard the sound of shoveling. Light came back and he felt fresh air on his back. He changed back to complete human form and crawled his way through the hole.

It was Perospero, having used a huge shovel out of hardened candy. "We have to go, now!" he shouted, and Ruffy shifted painfully and grabbed the man with one good hand and escaped the place they could have died under.

"Don't fly back to the top, the cake is going to fall," Perospero said in a nervous voice.

"What about everyone on top?!" Ruffy cried.

"They'll think of something," the candy man replied. Ruffy thought of all of his family up there going to fall. His dad.

"No, I'm going back up," Ruffy said in a determined voice, and dropped the oldest uncle to the ground, from not a high height. He heard him calling Ruffy's name, but the dragon didn't stop. He knew he looked like crap, and would freak Katakuri out. Plus, he was covered in frosting, though most of it blew off from the air resistance of flying.

He already knew he had horrible bruising, since when he looked down at his arms in human form not long ago, he could see them forming. That shouldn't happen, should it? Bruising takes a while. Maybe it had something to do with his devil fruit.

He also knew his arm was bleeding, as a little bit of bone poked out of the skin. But he wouldn't just abandon everyone because of a broken bone. The Chateau was cracking apart and falling quickly. Ruffy enlarged himself as big as he could, and landed on the edge of the castle on the side that was tipping.

"Get on my back!" he shouted. Only a few heard, and thankfully one was Katakuri. He helped others get onto Luffy's back before he got on. Not many heard, and there were things falling all over. Only about twenty Charlottes made it. Not including Oven and Daifuku, or Smoothie, his favorites. But they would have made him even heavier.

"Hang on!" Ruffy shouted and flew off the edge, flying to the side of the cake that was not going to fall. He couldn't fly long with so many people on, and especially his dad. He basically crashed into a house, but no one but him was hurt. They all shakily got off and stared up at the castle falling.

Ruffy changed back into human form, breathing heavily. Katakuri saw all of the bruising all over his back, where the shirt had been torn off long ago.

"Ruffy, what the hell happened to you?" he asked in worry, picking his son up out of the rubble of the destroyed house.

He turned him over to see the badly broken bone, bleeding from a bone puncturing the skin. His eyes widened. Ruffy never broke bones, even after falling from tall places. "Ugh… Pieces of cake… fell on me… Pero… spero saved me. But my arm is broken. It fucking hurts," Ruffy groaned. He rarely swore, so he must be in a lot of pain.

Katakuri covered the arm in a mochi brace, not putting the bone back in place for worrying he'd make it worse. He had first made a sort of hardened bandage over it before drying a thick band of mochi over the forearm and upper arm.

"That's as good as it's gonna get for now. We can't get a doctor right now. Are you able to fly still?" the man asked, helping Ruffy stand up.

"The mochi brace- will break if I change," Ruffy replied, back on his feet. Katakuri touched the mochi brace and made it stretchy, but still not too liquidy. It wasn't as good a brace as it would be if hardened, but he knew Ruffy still wanted to be able to fight. He looked up and could hear the screams around them, but those people could evacuate.

"I'm going back up," Ruffy said, and didn't wait for Katakuri to say anything, shifting into his biggest form, stretching the brace but not breaking it, and flew up the good side that wouldn't crush him. _Again._

He knew he couldn't carry Big Mom. It was just impossible. But, he could try and save the others. "Smoothie! Oven! Daifuku!" he probably couldn't carry all of them on his back, so he could just hold onto them with his three good legs. He kept his bad arm to his chest, keeping it as still as possible.

He found them sliding down the tilted roof, like everyone else. He saw Luffy and Sanji. Germa 66 would save them. He could see to the side and saw two of them standing up. Jeez, they were pests. He hoped they'd get crushed.

He grabbed onto Smoothie with his front hand and the other two with his back. He had to drag them down the ground so others could jump onto his back. When he couldn't carry anymore, he jumped over the side and didn't fly. Just glided in a circle getting lower and lower until he crashed, having dropped the three he was carrying so he didn't crush them.

"Off, get off now!" he screamed as his bad arm was pinned between the ground and his chest. But, the mochi brace stayed. It only hurt. The others on his back jumped off and stared at the Chateau in shock and horror. People were still up there, but based on Ruffy's condition, as he lay on the ground in human form, he wasn't able to make another trip.

The second Charlotte son ran over and helped him onto his back. Ruffy was sweating profusely And was starving. "Dad, get me some food. I need food," Ruffy said, trying to sit up, only Katakrui gently pressed down on his chest to make him lay down again.

"I'll go get the food, stay laying down," he commanded. All he had to do was go break some houses. Meat would be better, but in a country made up of sweets, it was hard to come by randomly. He came back with a huge arms load of chocolate and graham crackers and the like.

Luffy sat up, propped up by Katakuri's hand as he scarfed all of the food down. He looked back up to the Chateau. "Dad? Do you think Pudding is still up there?" he asked in horror.

"I don't know."

After Luffy had eaten everything, he said, "I had just caught them, too. Then there was an explosion and a bunch of cake fell on top of me, and I dropped them by accident. Then Perospero saved me. I feel useless, and embarrassed," he confessed in a quiet voice.

"Ruffy, you're not useless. You saved thirtyseven of us," Smoothie said, though she sounded angry, but not at her nephew. "Did one of the Straw Hats do this or those stupid Fire Tanks?"

"Could have been Germa," Oven said, pissed as well. "Those damn pests. We could have caught the traitors if they hadn't gotten in our way!" Ruffy looked down in shame.

"I caught them. Then whatever it was exploded, and a bunch of cake landed on me. Broke my arm, so I'm pretty useless now," Ruffy grumbled.

"Just 'cause you can't fight doesn't mean you're useless. You could hear everything going on in that stupid fort. Plus you can still fly and breathe fire, right?" Custard asked. Ruffy nodded his head.

"Flying is one thing, but I can't carry any more people. It was hard just carrying dad, and he's one guy. I can't carry all of you in a long distance. I was a miracle I didn't crash earlier and drop all of you, or land on top and crush you."

"Should we go try and catch our brothers and sisters?" Cinnamon asked.

"Yeah. Katakuri, can you make a net out of mochi?" Smoothie asked. Katakuri nodded, and got up to run off.

"Wait, let me come!" Ruffy shouted. Katakuri turned around and gave him a very serious look.

"No. Don't follow me, I won't put you in danger when you're already hurt. Stay here," he commanded. Ruffy's face turned red in embarrassment. Stupid cake!

"I'm going, too," a couple others agreed, and soon it was only Ruffy and Mayukuru, who had also been injured when a falling table hurt her ankle. Ruffy sat against a broken house's wall, and looked up. He saw Sanji carrying Luffy walking up the air. Those stupid Germa 66 kids were helping them.

So, their enemies won. And if Mama fell, she probably could have died, and then the Straw Hats and Fire Tanks would have achieved their mission, just in an unexpected way. And Ruffy was very concerned about Pudding. No one had seen her for awhile. If she died, Luffy's last words would have been him yelling at her.

"Looks like something is flying around the cake," Mayukuru said. Ruffy looked and saw something small flying round the cake. They both watched in silence as the top of the cake was suddenly cut off and landed. The cake looked like it was melting, and instead of a big "boom" sound of it hitting the capital, it just sounded like liquid hitting the ground.

"What the hell?" Ruffy asked quietly. Then he got up, and ran off, cradling his injured arm.

"Wait! Big Brother told you to stay here!" Maykuru shouted. But he wasn't going to stay. The cake wasn't falling anymore. It just made a huge, sticky mess. He climbed up onto a house with one arm whose roof was still intact, and saw that some of the Charlottes he hadn't been able to save were stuck in the cream. He saw Katakuri on a taller house, looking for something.

Ruffy hurried over, jumping from solid piece of cake to solid piece of cake so not to get stuck, like some of the others. "What now?" he asked when he was on top of the house, too.

"We don't know if Mama survived. Well, we'll learn soon. She can't have died. We have to go after the Straw Hats and Fire Tanks. That's all we have now," the mochi man said and then walked the way to get out of the cream, which was what everyone else was doing as well. It would take forever to clean this up. Well, Big Mom could probably eat all of it, so maybe it wouldn't be too bad.

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**Awww Katakuri is such a nice father. Review! **


	6. Decisions of War

**This chapter picks up right after the previous. Much shorter than chapter 5 was. I'm trying hard to finish some of my 202 unfinished fanfictions but I'm a little depressed right now so luckily there is still a lot left of this one and Sons of Beasts part 2. Enjoy~**

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Once everyone was gathered, someone having gone back to get Maykuru, and all of the peace keeper chess men were gathered as well. Luffy sat down against the nearest wall.

"Daifuku, form two military units," Katakuri ordered.

"Okay," his brother replied. He turned to the crowd of chess soldiers. "We'll split up into two groups and chase them! One group, bring back Straw Hat's head, and the other, bring back Bege's.

"Ruffy, you better change back to partial form. We don't want someone accidentally killing you," Daifuku added.

"I was going to anyways," Ruffy said as he got to his feet. "I'll help the group going after the Straw Hats," he said. And when Katakuri started to protest, Ruffy turned to him seriously.

"I can smell and hear the best. Sanji smells like Pudding's perfume, since he was carrying her. He also smells like a very identifiable tobacco, from his cigarettes. Luffy is also easy to find. He smells like meat. Like he ate a crap ton of it right before starring in this whole mess. He's also quite loud, and I have great hearing.

"I'm going with you. I won't be the one to cut his head off, okay? Just cause I can't fight very well now, doesn't mean I'm useless, right?" Ruffy asked seriously. He and Katakuri stared at each other, the elder being the one to cave.

"Fine. Let's go," Katakuri said, before Ruffy suddenly stopped, freezing, his eyes wide. "What is it, what's wrong?" he asked, letting worry come into his voice.

"It's that feeling I get when Mama goes on a rampage. She's alive… and pretty pissed I bet," Ruffy said, taking deep breaths. "Sometimes I hate having animal instincts. They suck," he complained. "She wants wedding cake."

"Damn. Well, before we leave we need to notify some others for their help. We'll stay away from Mama right now."

-x-

"The Tea Party turned out like that -bon?" The Baron Tamago, or whoever he was now, exclaimed. Katakuri didn't like having to recount the whole event, but it didn't take long to summarize.

"Yeah, it was a disaster! The wedding and the wedding cake were all ruined! The execution of the Vinsmokes was foiled!" Mont-d'or shouted angrily. "On top of that, Bege was betraying us and plotting to kill Mama!"

Ruffy was sitting down again. He still hurt in a lot of places. He had never had something heavy fall on him, so hadn't known what to expect. He wished they could leave already so they could find the Straw Hats and put an end to this mess. If they hadn't already gotten too far to follow. No, they had to be somewhere near. Pudding said she lead them to the area behind the Seducing Woods. Where they had gotten Brulee, who was feeling down, but pissed as she stood across from him a ways.

"Damn Bege! I completely respected him for his great abilities- _noir_!" Tamago exclaimed.

"But we still don't know anything about the explosion," Compote said, the oldest sister in the family.

"If it was any of them, I'd bet on the Fire Tanks. The only ones on the Straw Hat's crew who are good with things like that aren't here." Everyone looked at him in confusion.

"I used to talk with Straw Hat before the whole Fishman Island incident. He's my biological brother after all. So yeah, we talked. But not in a long time," Ruffy said, trying to hide the sadness. Katakuri and some others looked at him with sympathy.

"And you're okay to go after him?" Oven asked. Ruffy nodded his head.

"Well, whoever did it, they were fools. They were on the rooftop, too, so if they did it, they must have been suicidal," Oven said.

"They were suicidal attacking Mama at her castle in the first place," Mont'-dor grumbled. There were a few noises of agreement.

Baron Tamago ignored this and said, "But one mystery has been solved-_mour." _Then he talked about how all lines of communication during the Tea Party had been jammed- "_bon"._

Mont-d'Or said, "It was probably Bege and his allies." Ruffy was getting real impatient. The Straw Hats were leaving, and Mama was starting to rampage, but here they all were, standing around talking! But he didn't say anything, and just sat and watched in silence, wondering what the others were doing, and what they were planning on doing.

He was trying to forget about his blunder that both injured him and let the traitors go. He should have held on and crushed them, too.

"Was there anything you would like to report?" Oven asked Tamago.

"Well, during the Tea Party, the Sun Pirates, who were staying at the east coast…" Tamago started, but Peckoms instead shouted, "That's right! They fled! Grr! All members of the Fish-Man pirates packed up and fled!" Ruffy looked at him in irritation, as he interrupted Tamago, and Ruffy had never liked him. Too loud, and the thing he said after almost every sentence was annoying.

"I see. So that's why Jinbei did _that," _Mont-d'Or muttered. Ruffy tuned them out once they started discussing about Jinbei deciding to join the Straw Hats. He closed his eyes and tuned out the talking around him and listened as best as he could. He didn't hear anything out of the ordinary, besides the sounds of Mama getting closer. He did open his eyes when he heard Daifuku coming.

"Katakuri," he said, gaining his attention. "Some troops are already chasing the targets, and a large amount are storming Germa's kingdom."

"I see. Brulee, come with me and Ruffy," Katakuri said. Brulee was more than happy to help out on the _right _side.

"Of course I will, Big Brother! Can you take out Straw Hat and the others?! I wanna make them pay! They drove me like a horse, and made me help them to kill Mama!" Brulee shouted, clearly remembering not fond recent memories.

"Of course. We're going after him," her big brother replied.

"To kill him?!" Brulee demanded. She wanted all of the Srtawhats killed, with good reason. It must have been humiliating. Katakuri didn't answer for a moment.

"Yeah. We need to get rid of him before he really becomes a threat to Mama down the line." then they heard screaming and loud thumps against the cobblestone. Ruffy stood up right as Smoothie appeared out of smoke, calling everyone to evacuate the city.

"Told you," Ruffy mumbled.

"Everyone, run!" she called as she sprinted past them. The only ones who werent fazed were Katakuri and Ruffy. Ruffy had already told his father that he was hearing Big Mom rampage. Ruffy just stood there, hearing the screams. Again, he had the crushing urge to go home and try and forget the day ever happened. And he was still scared for Pudding. No one had mentioned her and it might be because they think she wrecked it by not shooting Sanji at the right time.

He hoped his aunts and uncles would realize that all of this would have still happened even if Pudding _had _shot Sanji. He'd tell them later that Pudding shot all of her ammo at Sanji and he dodged each time. But, people felt comfort by blaming someone for something bad, and that would be on Pudding.

"Ruffy, I want you to stay out of Mama's eyesight," Katakuri said in a low voice. Ruffy nodded and hurried to behind a building, though still able to see what was going on. Big Mom wouldn't be able to see him, though, and that was the point. They could all hear Mama now, screaming about wanting her wedding cake. Ruffy was so done. He wished she had just fallen unconscious somewhere and they could do what needed to be done without worrying about her.

"She remembered that the wedding cake was destroyed and she couldn't eat it," Daifuku said in concern.

Ruffy saw Mama swinging something around in her hand, and so did the others since Mont-d'Or shouted out, "What's that in Mama's hand?!"

Before anyone answered, Katakuri said, "It's already too late." The words made Ruffy feel cold. Then, Mama threw whatever she was swinging around at the crowd of her children. It almost hit Mont-d'Or.

Ruffy ran out to see who it was, already knowing it was someone familiar, when Katakuri shouted, "Ruffy! Out of sight." Ruffy frowned and hurried back out of sight of the rampaging yonko destroying her own country.

"Big Brother Opera!"

Everyone's eyes widened when they saw a dead Opera, laying still on the ground. Ruffy almost threw up. He'd seen multiple dead people today, but this was the only family member.

"H-hey, wake up!" Oven shouted, shaking his brother trying to get him awake. "don't tell me… she took your lifespan?" he asked in horror, as others shouted his name.

"...Big Brother Opera stood in Mama's way to stop her!" Smoothie said. Ruffy's eyes widened. How stupid and brave. "Nobody get close to Mama! Especially you, Ruffy."

"W-we have to do something," Perospero said nervously. Big Mom screamed for the wedding cake again as she smashed both fists into multiple buildings, destroying them and causing debris to shoot up into the air.

"You know what we have to do! The only way to get her to stop is to feed her what she's craving!" Smoothie shouted. "What we need is the wedding cake."

"It's gone, though. There's no bringing that cake back," Ruffy said from his hidey-spot. "The chefs aren't organized and everything is a mess, not to mention how long it takes."

"Someone find the head chef!" Smoothie demanded. She turned to some citizens who had been running away. "Where is the head chef? He's the only one that could rebuild the cake!" The passers-by looked fearful.

"The thing is… Streusen-sama saved everyone's lives but, he himself missed the landing big time!" Suddenly the head-chef was in front of them, on a graham cracker gurney. He looked terrible. Ruffy hit his head against the wall of his hiding spot. He could have caught him. He should have tried doing more rescue.

"Ruffy, you can't save everyone," he heard Oven shout. "You saved a lot of us, but just cause you could do it doesn't mean you can." Ruffy nodded his head, sniffling his nose.

"He needs many days to recover, Smoothie-sama," the doctor said. Poor Streusen.

"What should we do to stop Mama?!" Daifuku shouted. Out of everything that had happened in the last couple hours, this was what really scared and bothered the man. Not the threat of other, strong enemies, but his own mother destroying her city and killing innocent people.

A building broke right in front of them. A few backed away a step. "We can't let her keep rampaging in the city," Perospero responded. They all saw Big Mom destroy a whole block right in front of them. "Where is it?!" she screamed, her eyes swirly, and clear she wasn't reacting normally to anything she was seeing.

The eldest son walked forwards a bit. "Mama! The wedding cake… isn't gone!" Perospero called, clearly improvising. But, it caught Mama's attention. "We have a spare cake on standby!"

"What are you talking about? There is no other cake!" Compote called. He was lying to her!

Ruffy had to respect him for lying straight to her without crapping his pants. "I-It's made from carefully selected ingredients," he continued, shaking and sweating. "And it's meltingly delicious! It's the best wedding cake ever! I really want you to have it, but believe it or not, the Straw Hats stole it and ran away!" Ruffy had to notice that Mama really had no grasp on reality, as a massive wedding cake would not fit onto the Thousand Sunny, and they would not be able to carry such a behemoth and not be found instantly. "They're now heading to the southwest coast trying to get away!"

Mama stopped thrashing for a moment. "Wedding… cake?" she whimpered.

"Th-that's right! They've got it!"

No one said anything, as they all waited nervously for what the reaction would be, as the yonko hadn't said anything in reply, and was just staring off into space. Then, she turned to Perospero and leaned down. Ruffy inhaled sharply, and hid around the corner. He still listened, and heard her say, "If you're lying… you'll pay with your lifespan!"

Ruffy had always not been completely terrified of Mama, like many were, but today was different. Things were so much more intense, and she was so much more angry and crazy. Killing her children. Ruffy sure was glad Katakuri had never parented him as badly as Mama did to her children.

Poor Perospero was terrified, and Ruffy could hear the trembling. Then, she turned around and screamed, once again, "Wedding cake!"

They all watched as she called Zeus as she leapt into the air. Prometheus was there, too, and when Big Mom landed on the cloud, it instantly turned into a thundercloud. "Wedding cake!" the yonko screamed as she flew off at light speed.

It was quiet for a few moments, everyone surprised at the sudden exit. "AHH! I'm in trouble!" Perospero panicked. "Even if Mama gets to the Straw Hats, they don't have the cake! What should I do?!"

Ruffy came out from his hiding, his heartbeat slowing, and kindly said, "It was good improvising, though! You saved the rest of the city, after all."

"I thought it was pretty smart," Smoothie agreed. "But…"

Perspero fell to his knees. "When Mama comes back, I'm dead."

"But, you bought time, right?" Ruffy asked. "Can't we just make another cake here? It'll be the only way to save the island."

It was quiet for a moment, before the candy man replied, "Well, it's impossible. Think about it, Ruffy. How many days do you think even the head chef, Streusen, needed to make that cake? The rare ingredients that we collected by robbing other countries are gone! And the person who baked it is in a coma! He can't make the cake!"

"But…" Ruffy said weakly.

"What's more troubling is that Mama hasnt even tasted the cake! The never before eaten, delicious cake now in Mama's head… who can make such a thing?!"

Ruffy deflated, leaning back against the same building he'd used as a hiding space. He had no reply. He couldn't think of any way. Plus, none of the group had anyone remotely good at baking. Ruffy helped out Pudding when making simple stuff, but who knew where Pudding was now?

"This is bad," Katakuri said. "At the very least this island will be destroyed." Ruffy couldn't help but think a lot of it had already been destroyed. Most of the town and the castle, which now was a messed up piece of real cake. "What lies ahead of us is unclear."

"Don't be so ominous! There has to be something," Ruffy insisted. But no one had anything to say. Then, Ruffy heard the voice he'd wanted to.

"Do you want me to help you?" It was almost before she finished the second that Ruffy leapt up to the flying carpet she was on and glomped her.

"Pudding, I was scared you were dead!" Ruffy shouted. Pudding pat his back.

"Well I'm not, and I'm here to help. We don't have to talk about what happened," she said more quietly, so only Ruffy heard. She then turned back to the others. "The wedding cake was a chocolate chiffon cake. I can make as good a chocolate flavor as the head chef, if not better."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll help."

"No, Ruffy. If you helped her, we'd be doomed," Oven said.

"Hey! I help her make brownies all the time!" Ruffy shouted, insulted.

"Anyways," Pudding said as if neither had spoken. "And big sis Chiffon is an expert on chiffon cakes. I'm sure we could make something if we worked together!"

"Yeah, well, she's a traitor as well, Pudding," Ruffy said sadly. Pudding looked shocked. "She was in on the assassination attempt."

"And she's married to Bege, our enemy," Oven added.

"Then I'll make her do it," Pudding threatened, holding up her gun, which Ruffy had thought ran out of bullets, but that wasn't the problem at the moment. "The truth is the ingredients used on the cake were gathered together at Chocolat Town, Cacao Island, the gateway to our territory. So there _are _actually extra supplies of rare ingredients!

"So Brother Peros, once Mama eliminated the Straw Hats,-" (Ruffy heard the very tiny hitch in her voice) "-lead her to Chocolat town! I'll end the matter," Pudding finished decisively. Ruffy smiled at her and jumped off, landing next to Katakuri.

"You sure?! You're so helpful, Pudding!" Perospero shouted.

"Well, now it's more likely you won't die!" Ruffy said, trying to sound cheerful, but only made it a bit awkward. "Uh, nevermind," he said sheepishly.

"Well, now that that's figured out, we're going after Straw Hat. Ruffy, Brulee come with me," Katakuri said. He said nothing of the muttered "_Finally" _Ruffy made. "Nearest mirror," he said. All three entered the nearest house. It was easy finding a mirror, and all three went inside it into the Mirror world.

"Look for a mirror leading to the Straw Hat's ship."

"Mirrors! Do you see the inside of a ship?" Brulee called, instead of searching for a mirror manually. That would take entirely too long.

"No!"

"Me neither!"

More cries of mirrors refuting echoed around the swirly hallways until Ruffy heard, far from there, "I found one! Me, I found one!"

"This way. One of them found a ship," Ruffy instructed and lead his father and aunt along the hall and to the mirror chiming proudly that it was attached to the inside of a ship. It looked to be a girl's room. Ruffy wondered how this mirror knew it was the inside of a ship. "Is this the right one? I've never been sent pictures of the girl's room before," Ruffy said.

"Only one way to find out. Brulee stay in here," Katakuri instructed as both he and Ruffy climbed out of the mirror and into the ship. "Is it theirs?" the mochi man asked. Ruffy knew immediately that it was thee due to the familiar smells, not inside this room, but wafting around the rest of the ship.

"It's theirs. This is the Thousand Sunny."

* * *

**To be continued!**


	7. Confrontation on the Thousand Sunny

**Some of my sarcasm about certain things slips through in this chapter. It's much longer than the other ones. I literally wrote a whole, 40,000 word fanfic, and realized it was garbage and could never be read while rereading it. Major disappointment. Anyways, Enjoy~**

* * *

After having the confirmation, more soldiers entered the ship through the mirror. There were tons of chess piece soldiers and many Charlottes waiting in the Mirror world to act at the right time.

The Big Mom pirates and family were spread out in the ship, mostly on deck and in the room with the mirror. Ruffy could tell if the Straw Hats were almost there, so he wouldn't be caught by surprise. And he couldn't stop himself from exploring the ship.

When he came across the infirmary, he was reminded of his injury and cut open the mochi with one of his clawed fingers, and looked inside. It was a mess. The mochi had turned a pink color from the blood coming from under the bandage. He slowly peeled the mochi off and saw the bloody piece of bone. He gagged at it.

He hurried out onto deck. "Is anyone a doctor here?" he called loudly enough for everyone to hear. Katakuri came over and looked at the wound. He was concerned, and really hoped someone could do something about this while they had the time.

"I know medical treatments!" a chess piece soldier said. Ruffy called for him to hurry after him and lead the homie into the infirmary. Clearly, the soul of this homie had been a doctor. How convenient.

Ruffy's arm was gently handled and sanitized. He omitted any pain medication since it might interfere with what he still could do, use his senses to be helpful. Plus, he needed to be able to move around quickly.

He bit down on a pillow on the bed as the bone was pushed back into place. The pillow ripped open and spilled feathers everywhere, but Ruffy didn't care. He was doing his best not to look at what was being done to his arm.

He grunted again once stitches began. It took maybe then minutes, since the exit wound hadn't been large, though it bled a lot. Katakuri was brought in after it was over and created a new mochi cast. Ruffy wiped the tears of pain off of his face.

"Sh-shit, that hurt," he said in a shaking voice.

"Ah! Wait, Ruffy-san!" the chess piece doctor said. "There is some bruise ointment here," he said and handed the much taller Ruffy the cup of it. He took the lid off, and asked Katakuri to rub it on his back, since that was where most of the bruising was.

It was a cool feeling and made his skin tingly, and not throbbing dully anymore. "Thanks," He said to his dad and pocketed the ointment.

After he was better, he wandered around the ship, quickly as he probably didn't have much time left before any of the Straw Hats showed up. He thought it was a very fun ship. He liked the aquarium the most, and the bathhouse was nice, if he could bathe and not drown.

He could smell everyone's scents, though many he didn't recognize. He ran into the kitchen, and his stomach growled. Well, if he had to fly or fight soon, then he should eat some food. He almost laughed, raiding the refrigerator of an enemy pirate crew. He shoved delicious foods into his mouth, though he had thought there would be more.

Oh well, anything was good.

Once he had stuffed himself till he was satisfied, having eaten most of what was in the pantry, he went back up to the deck and explored the grassy area some more, before climbing up the crowsnest slowly with one arm. He could hear some who _weren't _family, mumbling about Ruffy not taking this seriously, but Katakuri said nothing of it, and Ruffy continued to explore.

It smelled like sweat up in the crowsnest, which also seemed to be a small gym. Luffy had told him that Zoro was an exercise junkie.

Ruffy could hear more explosions coming from the forest, and looked out of the window to see the sky had suddenly darkened over the forest, and lightning shot down from a huge thunder cloud. Zeus? It was definitely Zeus as Ruffy could faintly hear him talking through the opened window. Ruffy slammed his hands over his ears at the sharp and sudden deafening crack.

After a moment of deep breathing, he carefully climbed back down from the crowsnest and walked over to the swing to wait for the Straw Hats to get there. When he looked to his dad, he noticed his expression was more tense than usual. Ruffy wondered if he was capable of killing Luffy, who was identical to Ruffy. Was Pudding right about that?

Suddenly, Ruffy stood up and looked around, gaining the others' attentions. He ran to the side of the ship, and listened. "There's something coming towards us from under the water! There is at least one person inside," Ruffy called. But, it was only a few seconds later that a metal shark surfaced. Ruffy smacked his hand to his forehead. How could he have forgotten about their submarine!

The top of the vehicle popped open and Chopper popped out. "Hey, guys!"

"Sorry to keep you waiting!" the skeleton called.

They were definitely not the strongest on the ship since they couldn't sense the different feelings and sizes of the people with their own observation haki. But, they soon saw who was on the ship. At least two very strong fighters, Katakuri and Perospero, along with dozens of chess piece soldiers, with some other Big Mom pirates as well.

"Wha- why are they..?" Chopper asked fearfully.

"On board our Sunny?" the other finished. Then he looked closer. "Hey, that's Ruffy!" The skeleton may not have noticed how Ruffy fought against them, as he waved to his captain's twin. Ruffy just stared back with a dark expression. Brook and Chopper both began to sweat.

"Those are Chopper and Brook. Not the strongest on the crew. Zoro isn't here, and Luffy and Sanji are still in the forest. We can take these two out easier than 'the monster trio'," Ruffy explained.

"Wh... why are you giving them information?! We thought you were Luffy's brother, our fri-!" Brook called, but Ruffy cut him off.

"I am NOT your friend!" Ruffy shouted angrily. Brook and Chopper froze, clearly surprised by Ruffy's anger. Then they looked hurt. The look of betrayal on their faces, which angered Ruffy. "You don't get to look at _me _like I betrayed _you_! This is my home, and your stunts have caused multiple of my family members to die! What kind of 'friends' do something like this! You should have just taken Sanji once you got him back and left!

"We are not friends and will never be anything close to them again," Ruffy finished, and turned away.

Perospero saved him from having to talk anymore, and said, "Sorry, but your friends aren't here! Based on what happened a few moments ago, it seems Mama has finished off the Straw Hats with Zeus. Mama'll be here soon." He paused and then smirked. "Straw Hat and his allies are _dead._

"Now, if we can lead Mama to Pudding and let her eat the cake, everything will be fine!" Perospero exclaimed, clearly feeling extremely relieved and that he was _not _going to die for lying to the crazed yonko. "Things are going smoothly!"

Ruffy turned away from him and back to the two pirates standing on the shark submarine. He was the only one that could still hear them, "He's saying such a thing, but they'll be fine, right?" Brook asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure," Chopper said confidently.

"It really does seem like your friends are dead," Perospero mocked, but neither pirate were convinced. Ruffy understood why, since Luffy had survived multiple things a normal person couldn't, but Mama had to be stronger than him.

But then again, she was out of her mind, and might be being sloppy. Ruffy had never been allowed to be anywhere near the location of Mama going on a food craving rampage. Katakuri and his aunts and uncles would always make sure to keep Ruffy away and safe.

"That's never the case for Luffy-san and the others," Brook replied angrily.

"That's right, they'll be back!"

"What will the two of you do?" the candy man asked. "Even if you two take back this ship at the risk of your lives, no one will return." Chess Piece soldiers aimed their arrows at the two still out in the water. "If you wanna get out of here on that submarine, I won't mind letting you go if it's just the two of you."

Ruffy wasn't watching anymore, as he had turned away again, but heard Brook say politely, "Oh, we appreciate your concern." Perospero laughed. "But… no thanks," the skeleton said angrily as he drew his sword, which was also a walking cane. Everyone on the ship immediately took up arms.

Katakuri just continued to sit at the bench around the mast, though he watched the two enemy pirates closely. Ruffy didn't tense or get ready to fight. Sure, he liked fighting, but not only was his arm injured and back sore, he just didn't want to fight the Straw Hats. They weren't his friends, and he was mad at them, but didn't want to be the one to kill anybody.

Chopper transformed into a more squarish version of himself, which he proclaimed was "kung fu point". "Get off the ship you bastards! That's our Sunny!" he shouted angrily. Ruffy walked away from the railing and sat on the bench next to his dad.

"Do you want to fight?" Perospero asked in slight disbelief.

"Of course!" Brook replied, causing the archer chess pieces to draw their weapons.

"We'll save the Sunny!" the square-like reindeer exclaimed. No one on the ship was impressed. Perospero shrugged slightly.

"Then I guess you want to die," and arrows were shot at the strange duo. Each arrow was either destroyed or dodged, and then the two jumped onto deck.

"Let's get started! A fully-standing show!" Brook shouted from the middle of the deck. A few of the pirates looked to Ruffy, like he had lied to them.

"Hey, I said they'd be easier to take down than Luffy, Zoro and Sanji. I didn't say they were _weak. _None of them are weak. At least not to Luffy and the world Government. And yeah, Chopper got a shitty bounty. Doesn't mean they're both weak," Ruffy explained. "And that wasn't a compliment!" he shouted when he saw Chopper and Brook with smirks on their faces.

Ruffy and Katakuri still sat at the bench while Brook and Chopper defeated the chess pieces, and beat the Big Mom pirates that werent part of the family. "This is just embarrassing," Ruffy said under his breath, and Katakuri hummed in agreement.

Ruffy suddenly shot his head up, hearing the screams from not only Big Mom but the other Straw Hats plus Jinbei, the traitor. "What is it?" the mochi man asked quietly.

"We're gonna have a lot of company. Big Mom, Straw Hats and two other scents that are getting closer but I can't tell…" Ruffy answered quietly, too quiet for anyone but his father to hear. Ruffy heard more mumbled words before he could hear definite voices. "_PUDDING?!" _Ruffy suddenly shouted. It startled Katakuri and Perospero, who werent each fighting. Ruffy stood up and ran up the stairs to try and see into the forest deeper.

"The forest ends here!" a female voice called. Then, to Ruffy's slight horror, he saw Pudding on her carpet with a traitor and a Straw Hat.

"PUDDING! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" he roared. Pudding was just let off the hook of not shooting by being the one to bake the cake, and now she's seen with _two _of the enemies?

"R-Ruffy?!" Pudding called. "It's not what you think!" Ruffy was glaring at her, wanting an explanation. "Sanji-san is a good cook, Chiffon has made cakes with me before! They're going to help me, and then af-after Mama is better, we can kill them! This is just temporary, I swear!" Ruffy heaved a sigh, and then sat down on the higher deck.

"Oh no!" Chiffon exclaimed, seeing the two oldest Charlotte sons waiting for Luffy to arrive. But, the carpet flew on, still carrying Sanji, who didn't look worried about his crewmates' fates at all. Ruffy glared at him as they flew away.

After the three on the carpet faded from view, flying back towards Cacao island, Perosepro said, "After the cake is made and Mama eats it, we'll finish those two off." Ruffy felt he was only saying something like that because it was to save him from Mama for lying to her.

Brook and Chopper didn't become distracted by their crew member, enemy and ally flying away and above them on a carpet, which Ruffy had to hand it to them. But, badly for those two, the mirror was still feeding soldiers and pirates onto the Thousand Sunny from the Mirror world. No matter how many they took down, more would filter in.

Brook's ability with the haunted skeleton-thing sucking out homies' souls was cool but also quite disturbing. But, it only worked with the homies. Chopper's skills varied, so that could be a good thing in some situations, not knowing which form to fight next, but still, they were both being surrounded by too many too fast.

While they both panted from exertion, Perospero said, "You're quite tough. How could you hold out this long for these many people?"

Brook and Chopper ignored his words as they continued to fight off enemies. The deck of the Sunny was now littered with unconscious or soulless opponents.

"Hm, what an interesting exotic animal?" the candy man wondered. Neither Straw Hat seemed to care what he thought, as they repeatedly tried to get their enemies to leave their precious ship. Ruffy could understand why they didn't want them there, at their home, but he and Katakuri werent leaving until Luffy came.

"You keep up quite well with the Chess Peacekeepers, skeleton," Katakuri said, surprising both Ruffy and Perospero. He had been quiet for awhile.

"That's because I am… Soul King!" Brook replied. You could tell Perospero was bored with these two, despite Chopper being an "interesting exotic animal".

"Enemies keep coming out of the mirror. It's the mirror in Nami and Robin's room. Will they get mad if we break it?" Chopper panted. Ruffy wondered how scary the two women could be to make them hesitate breaking the mirror to keep enemies off of the ship.

"If we can break it, we break it, and then apologize later," Brook replied.

Perospero was still standing at the railing, and laughed. Ruffy had never known before the Tea Party how much the candy man liked to taunt people. First, he loses his chance to kill the Germas, and now he liked taunting the Straw Hats with the supposed death of the others. "Who will you apologize to? You saw that lightning strike earlier. How intense it was? That just shows how angry Mama was with you.

"I bet there aren't even _bones _left of Straw Hat and the others. No one will return to this ship," the candy man said. Ruffy nor Katakuri corrected him, telling him that the Straw Hats were, in fact, still alive, and that Mama was, too. First, they didn't want Chopper and Brook to sudden become invigorated by the knowledge that they know their friends are alive, and second, Persospero was obviously enjoying taunting them.

Ruffy assumed that this was helping with his stress over the fact that it was _him _that didn't call on the others to kill the Vinsmokes until it was too late, and by then, they were defeating us and letting the traitors and attempted assassins flee the scene safely.

"I'm saying I'll show some mercy on you! No matter how much you fight, our soldiers will emerge endlessly. You guys will eventually use up all of your energy. If you submit right here and right now, I'll at least spare your life. Just let it go already."

It was quiet for a moment. The, calmly, Brook replied, "What a _useless _conversation. We got sick and tired of answering to that line of yours…" Then, to everyone's shock or slight/mild surprise, Brook pointed his weapon at his taunter. "I just need you to get off of this ship. The Sunny is ours!"

The still-alive people on the ship were stunned when the skeleton aimed towards Perospero and then shot forward. The oldest Charlotte son effortlessly blocked the strike. "Hmm. Seems like you really don't value your life. Alright… I'll kill you with my own hands."

"They're coming closer. Mama's making a lot of noise behind them. The homies are screaming, too. Getting cut up or something," Ruffy said as he stood on the railing, seeing the smoke and debris from the crashing sounds he was hearing. He looked to Perospero and his prey, who were being shown just how out of their league they were as they were both trapped in hardened candy up by the front of the ship.

Ruffy didn't like seeing Perospero suffocating his victims with hardened candy, so he did his best to not pay attention to it. At least it was quick. Plus, Ruffy didn't want to see such a cruel way to kill.

"I'm gonna go inside while he does that," the older teen told Katakuri. "I'll be out right away if I notice Luffy arrive."

"Alright."

Ruffy could still hear Brook screaming, but it soon stopped. He sighed, looking at his boots, and his broken arm. He was weak. He couldn't even watch someone, an enemy, die. And, he got crushed under damn _cake!_ And it broke his arm. He glared at it as he heard Katakuri and Perospero speak.

Finally, they could both hear Mama screaming "wedding cake!"

"Her hunger pangs won't stop," the candy man said. "We have to lead her to Pudding on Cacao Island. If she finds out there's no cake on this ship, she'll kill me." It looked like his distraction was gone now, and the worry was back in his voice. With Chopper and Brook being dead now, he had nothing to occupy his thoughts with. Ruffy thought that he was very brave to lie to Mama, knowing what the consequences could be.

"I don't think we've gotten that far yet..." Katakuri replied.

Ruffy was out in less than a second when he heard the first clear shout of someone who wasn't Mama, and could finally fully hear their footsteps.

"It's the coast! Hurry to the Sunny!" he heard his voice shout. So, Luffy was finally here. His twin looked to the side at Katakuri, wondering if he'd be able to do it.

"He was alive? Straw Hat…" Perospero said in shock.

"We already knew. I was just letting you have fun taunting them," Ruffy confessed. His oldest uncle turned to glare at him and his father. Well, those two were goners now, so he wouldn't be embarrassed or told, "We told you so".

"Who are they?! The ship has been hijacked." Luffy cried out. When he came close enough to see Ruffy there, standing near the mochi man, his eyes grew wide. Ruffy's face was a cold mask, glaring at him darkly.

Ruffy could see his brother's eyes flick to the cast on his arm. It was embarrassing. But his attention then turned to his candy covered crewmates. "What? Brook?! Chopper?! What's that?!"

Katakrui turned back to the others besides Ruffy, who he knew would not be leaving, and said, "Get back to the Mirroworld. If you stay, you'll end up lying at his feet in a few seconds," he said, frightening all of the others as they rushed back into the mirror. Like Luffy was this terrifying monster.

Luffy, and therefore, by default, Ruffy, were not scary looking. They were both skinny considering how much they worked out and how strong they were, so having people flee from him was a bit entertaining.

"Perospero and Katakuri… those two of all the others," Jinbei said, "the disaster continues."

"What about Ruffy?" Nami panted as they sprinted away from Mama. She had never witnessed Ruffy's strength. Only Jinbei and Sanji had, as Sanji was thrown around by him.

"He's injured, but it would be best to take him out as well. He has great senses, and has probably been listening to all of our plans, which is why they were all prepared for Germa to come out of Bege fighting."

Perospero had quickly gotten over the shock and irritation of his brother and his son letting him think the Straw Hats were dead when they were not, said, "It's amazing that you've gotten this far… I'm impressed. But, you're destination is a graveyard. You must die here!" then, the candy man shot out a large amount of golden, liquid candy.

Ruffy hadn't seen Candy Maiden in a long time. He was shown it as a child, to entertain him, but that was a long time ago. It was huge, and was about to fall and crush the group of enemies before they all punched it into pieces. Thinking they'd defeated it, they were shocked and confused when it reformed into something even bigger, with candy spikes that were shot at them.

They shouted and screamed as they dodged the big spikes. "No one can get through here!" Perospero shouted.

"Go around and get to the ship!" Jinbei shouted as they continued to dodge candy spikes. Luffy disagreed, and like Ruffy expected, came right at them. He looked to the side to see Katakuri had a scowl on. Luffy was going to do something troublesome for them.

Ruffy assumed he'd break the Candy Maiden and jump back onto his ship, which was what he did, only he surprised them by being able to light his arm on fire to punch and melt right through the candy. "Gum gum RED HAWK!"

Ruffy just looked surprised, and then irritated when a melted piece of candy fell onto his good arm, sizzling against the scales. He picked it off and threw it back onto the deck. Ruffy was expecting the unexpected. Luffy had a wild fighting style. From two years ago, Ruffy new all of his attacks, as they shared them with each other.

But, now being able to use haki, most of the attacks had changed in intensity and name. But, he was surprised to see his arm on fire, though Sanji had been able to light his leg on fire as well. Katakuri kept the same expression, which rarely faltered outside of their home.

Since it was only Ruffy, Katakuri and Perospero on deck, excluding the candied pirates, there werent many to surprise. "Fire?" the candy man asked in shock.

The candy melted down and started to drip onto the ground, almost catching some of the pirates and burning them badly. Having regular skin be burned with melted candy would no doubt be painful and debilitating.

Finally, Katakuri left his spot on the bench, and walked forwards, towards where Luffy was coming from. He hardened his own arm with armament haki and shot it forward, elongating it until it was stretched like Luffy's. The fists collided and really, nothing changed as neither dominated the other, until Katakuri fed more mochi into his fist and threw Luffy away. The Straw Hats and their allies were all surprised by this.

"He has an ability like Luffy's?!" the rabbit mink exclaimed. Luffy and Katakuri continued to glare at each other.

It was as if everyone had forgotten momentarily the crazy yonko following the Straw Hats, as she _once again _screamed, "Wedding CAKE!" and wildly threw her sword around, careless and choppy swings that did nothing.

"What do we do, Luffy?! We're surrounded!" Nami shouted. Luffy said and did nothing, but continued to glare daggers at Katakuri.

"Luffy, kick Katakuri off the ship! We'll sail away somehow!" Jinbei told Luffy. Luffy continued to glare at Katakuri, and only once his eyes flicked to Ruffy, standing away from his dad but still in view. Luffy angry frown turned sad for a split second, before he was back to looking at his real enemy, sizing him up.

"I got it!" Luffy replied and came sprinting forwards. Ruffy had to wonder momentarily why no one was trying to break Chopper and Brook out of the candy. It was clear they couldn't breathe through the hardened candy shells. But then again, they all had their hands full.

Jinbei led the others away from Mama, running straight through the almost hallway-like position of the hardened, melted, and now hardened again candy.

"That bastard! He must have come through the mirror dimension!" Luffy grumbled while he ran.

"I really don't want to get involved with Mama's Hunger Pangs," Perospero commented as Big Mom approached, now completely out of it and not able to attack. She just chanted "wedding cake!" and drooled everywhere.

Ruffy couldn't imagine having something like that happen to him. Every time he was craving meat but they were out, just going around and trashing things? If he did that at home, Katakuri would knock him out with haki and then go back to the couch to read while Ruffy's stomach continued to roar as he laid, unconscious.

Perospero walked away from the railing right before Luffy let out a "hawk gatling", which was punching Katakuri consecutively at a very fast pace, with both arms covered in haki. Ruffy stepped out of the way so the fists wouldn't hit him, and watched as Katakuri wasn't injured in any way due to being mochi and being able to move parts of his body out of the way so he wasn't touched a single time.

No one really noticed when the candy man dropped off the back of the ship and left, via a hardened candy raft. Jinbei and Nami quickly jumped onto the ship and to their friends stuck in the candy.

While Luffy and Katakuri glared at each other, Ruffy was still amazed to see that Nami and Jinbei had still not tried to break open the candy. But instead, Nami was explaining the "coup de burst" that was the Thousand Sunny's greatest was to escape. A burst of air coming from the back of the ship that will launch it into the air and fly away quite a long distance.

Ruffy finally did something and walked up the stairs casually. "Even if you did use Franky's coup de burst, the coastline and island is surrounded, and there are Tarte ships at the ready, not to mention the undersea trackers that will tell us where your ship is at all times," Ruffy said in a flat voice.

"Ruffy! How could you do this?! I thought you were Luffy's brother!" Nami exclaimed angrily.

"I helped you. In the best way I could without betraying, I helped Sanji escape. And then, instead of leaving safely with your family member, you staged an assassination on Mama? What were you thinking?!" Ruffy shouted, angry himself. Nami's anger faltered a bit when she was told he had tried to help.

"Sanji wanted to save his biological family!" the navigator shot back.

"You all risked your lives to save absolute _assholes?! _That makes no sense! And then, after you all _did _save them, Judge spit it back in his face! Now, you're all likely to die without even the gratitude from the people you risked your necks to save. Sounds like a rip off!" Nami flinched. She knew what he said was right. She hadn't wanted to save Sanji's family, but Luffy did. So they had.

"Even if Mama had been killed, you would still have zero chance of making it out of Totto Land all in one piece, without your ship being decimated and ruined beyond repair," Ruffy said. "Even if you do get away, you're ship will be targeted and probably unable to make it out of reach far enough to be out of our territory."

While Nami and Ruffy argued, Jinbei went to raise the anchors. He looked at Ruffy suspiciously. "Why aren't you trying to stop us?"

"I am injured, and I don't like killing people. And the only way to stop all of you is to kill you. I'm not gonna fight Luffy, but my dad is and I'll be there for him," Ruffy said in a hard voice.

"Why?" the fishman asked.

"How would you feel if you had to kill someone who looked identical to your son? Look, they're here already," Ruffy replied as tarte ships approached and started firing at them. Ruffy dropped back down to the middle deck, where Katakuri was. He had probably heard some of what Ruffy had said, but wasn't focusing on that as he was still glaring at Luffy.

The rubber man once again tried his gatling attack, but nothing was different than the first time. Katakuri wasn't touched even once, until he trapped Luffy's hand in his arm, which had turned into mochi. Luffy was caught, and dragged forward, his face meeting Katakuri's black fist, throwing him into the railing.

If Luffy weren't rubber, that would have broken all of the bones in his cheek and jaw. To everyone's surprise, but no one reacted to it, the ship was surrounded and trapped by hardened candy. Everyone had seemed to have forgotten that Perospero had vacated the ship and was now at the far end of the coast the Sunny was docked at.

The jaguar mink that hadn't boarded the ship went after Perospero, who once again started to enjoy taunting him, as he was caught in candy under his foot. It was just another noise irritating Ruffy's sore ears, now there was the cannon fire from the approaching Tarte ships, the stomping sounds of Big Mom's feet and her wailing, the talking between everyone around him and the cracking sound as the candy clung tighter to the ship, which was now trapped and unable to get away even by a coup de burst. It irritated his ears.

Suddenly, a _huge _explosion rocked the ship, cracking the candy it was trapped in. Ruffy cried out and clamped his hands over his ears before screaming, "PEROSPERO!" when he saw the place his uncle had been standing was now a huge ball of flame. It was so intense that it even knocked Mama over and tossed the Sunny free from its binds. At the same time, the bunny mink was screaming her friend's name. The one who just blew himself up.

Well, Ruffy was right. The Straw Hats would not leave all in one piece. There was no chance of Pedro being alive after that, but… was his uncle dead, too? He stared at the spot in horror, and even Katakuri had a horrified expression on.

"Don't tell me Big Brother Peros…" he said quietly as he still stared at the place he'd been. Ruffy turned around to hear Chopper and Brook coughing. Ruffy had _no idea _how they were still alive. It had been quite longer than three minutes since they were enveloped! Brook, sure. He was a skeleton, so maybe he'd be fine, but Chopper was a living, breathing creature who should have suffocated.

"I can't believe he sacrificed himself…" Jinbei said in disbelief and anger. "How dare you, Pedro!?"

The rabbit mink, Carrot, wanted to jump off the ship and go see if her friend was alive, as Ruffy did for his uncle. But, there was no way he could get over there in time to check and also be at the ready for whatever was gonna happen between Katakuri and Luffy.

He looked away from the blaze and at his feet, before making eye contact with Katakuri, who looked at him very sadly.

"Ready to fly, Nami?!" Luffy called.

"In a minute! Chopper, Brook, are you with us?" the orange head asked. Chopper and Brook were still coughing, so Jinbei answered for them.

"Set sail, guys!" the captain of the Sunny shouted. "If we miss this chance, we'll waste Pedro's sacrifice! We'll get out of here no matter what! At any price!" Katakuri seemed to be tired of the pirates, and distract himself from Perospero's possible death by turning back to Luffy.

"Why the hell," he said, readying mochi clubs to come out of his back, "is everyone so heated up?!"

Carrot, who was still crying with grief, seemed to snap, and went after Katakuri. "GO AWAY, BIG MOM PIRATE!" Of course Katakuri dodged every fist thrown at him easily. "Electrical-!" But the man slammed his large foot down on the mink's back, the sharp spur on his heel no doubt digging into her back. Once she hit the deck, he kept her down by leaving his foot on her back, preventing her from getting up.

"As long as I'm here, I won't let you set sail!" he growled, looking down at her like she was pathetic.

It wasn't a surprise that Luffy didn't like this, and screamed, "GET YOUR FOOT OFF HER BACK!" and tried, again, to gatling punch him. Katakuri did what he had done before, and didn't get hit. "Carrot, leave him to me!" he shouted as he continued to fruitlessly punch Ruffy's father.

"I hope you're strong enough to kick me out," the Sweet Commander said. Ruffy watched in hidden interest when Luffy did gear third with a haki covered arm. It honestly looked like it must hurt, but Luffy never let on that it did.

"We'll set sail! I'm the captain of this ship! Gum-gum… elephant gun!" It seemed like Katakuri had stopped the powerful blow, but he and Ruffy were both surprised when the Sweet Commanders was caught by Luffy's enlarged fingers wrapping around him. Ruffy took a step forward, but then stopped.

He had vowed not to fight Luffy, and it wasn't like Katakuri could be squeezed to death. He also kept his senses focused in case on the other pirates or Jinbei went after him, thinking he was distracted.

He heard the footsteps of the mink girl, still crying angrily, wanting to take it out on someone, and leaped after Ruffy. He didn't want to be bothered as he focused on the other two battling, and easily punched her in the stomach with his scaled fist, throwing her into the railing, and splintering it's wood.

He didn't know who this was, besides her name, so he didn't care if he hurt her. He just didn't want to hurt any of these Straw Hats, which was ridiculous. Maybe, he was less mad at them as it was the captain's orders and Sanji's wish that had them not leaving when they had a better chance to.

Carrot coughed blood, and the others clearly didn't like this, and went after him. Brook and Chopper were easy to dodge as they were still affected from being trapped and unable to breathe just a few moments ago.

Nami tried to electrocute Ruffy with her power, but Ruffy's scales discharged the lightning. She then tried a gust sword, which was a concentrated beat of wind, but ruffy quickly crouched down and dug his claws into the deck, keeping him stationary.

"Nami!" Luffy shouted, still holding onto his opponent. Nami backed away from Ruffy and ran to the wheel.

"I know! Ok, the sails can stay like that!" she said to herself, going to grip the lever that would activate a coup de burst. She named coordinates of where they would be heading, and Ruffy bent the lever when she wasn't ready to pull it.

Before he could do anything else, he was caught by surprise for once and thrown backward and over the railing onto the middle deck by a strong punch from Jinbei. He was momentarily shocked and hissing by the pain of landing on his bruised back, bruise cream or not, and jarring his arm.

Nami looked horrified, and tried to wrench it back so she could pull it and get them out of there.

"Nami! Not yet?!" Luffy called, still holding onto Katakuri, though his hand was shaking.

"I know! A little more to go!" she replied. Big Mom was up now, and stomping towards the Sunny. Chopper and Brook were shaking, terrified of the yonko and her red eyes. She was _pissed _now. She had been caught in the explosion from the jaguar mink's sacrifice. Well, if uncle Perospero was dead… Mama couldn't kill him painfully. But, then she'd target everyone on the ship for not having the cake that was promised, including her son and grandson.

Cannon balls began to shoot again, splashing into the water right in front of the head of the ship. "Nami!" Jinbei shouted from the railing.

"The cola energy has reached its maximum!" she said. Ruffy jumped up back onto the deck where the wheel and grabbed Nami around the waist before she grabbed the bent lever. He dragged her away, trying to keep them from leaving and throwing them off balance.

"Hey, let me go!" Nami cried angrily, kicking her feet behind her.

Chopper hurried over and tried to punch Ruffy's back in kung fu point, but Ruffy leapt out of the way, and dropped Nami before running back to the lever and yanking the whole thing up. Now, it couldn't be pushed and they wouldn't be coup de bursting any time soon.

"Ahh!" Brook shouted in horror as Ruffy flung the now useless pole over the side of the ship. Jinbei looked furious, and aimed attack after attack of fishman karate, which surprised Ruffy considering how slow it had always seemed to be. It had Ruffy jumping around and around so he wasn't shot off the side to drown.

Brook hurried forwards and stabbed his sword into the slot, and pulled it back, but not before Mama was there. "WAIT!" she roared as she grabbed the ship from behind. Ruffy faintly heard some sort of bang from the inside of the ship, which was surprising that he could hear from all the noises around him.

He hurried to behind the mast so Big Mom didn't see him.

"I can't use the coup de burst!" Nami screamed in terror. It was their only way out, after all.

"What?!"

"I thought we could fly!"

"I think cola has leaked from the impact!" she cried. Brook, Chopper, and Jinbei all headed to the side of the ship to repel or destroy the cannon balls aimed for them. Ruffy didn't think about stopping them, for he and Katakuri could be caught in the fire while they were still on the ship. Chopper and Brook broke a few, but before Jinbei had a chance to, Nami asked him to take her place as she went to restore the cola.

Ruffy couldn't go after her while Mama was looking directly at the deck. She may not notice him, but still, he didn't want to risk it at all, and stayed behind the mast. He couldn't even move to the side and go into the interior of the ship without being at risk of her seeing and recognizing him.

He heard but didn't see Mama starting to chomp on the ship, destroying the railing. "Where is it?! The wedding cake?!"

"What are you doing!? Don't bite our Sunny!" Luffy shouted angrily. "Damn, if it goes on like this…!"

Suddenly, Brulee was in the mirror, "Brother! I'm here to save you!" she cried. While the others were panicking about Big Mom and Perospero (he was alive!), Luffy grabbed hold on Brulee, who was halfway out of the mirror.

Katakuri had seen what was about to happen, and shouted, "Ruffy, with me!" Ruffy abandoned his place behind the mast and shot over to him, and jumped onto his back, wondering what was going to happen.

"Nami, Carrot, Jinbei, Brook, Chopper!" Luffy shouted over all of the noises around them. "I'll be back! I'll leave the rest to you!" He said with a grin as the coup de burst was officially ready to be used. Ruffy gripped tighter around Katakuri's neck, shoving his hand into the mochi so he had a better grip so he wasn't thrown off by the force of the coup de burst.

Then, right before the coup de burst, Katakuri and Ruffy were pulled into the mirror world by Luffy, knocking the mirror over with no one seeing where they'd gone.

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**The fight between Katakuri and Luffy is next chapter, though it is different than cannon. Review!**


	8. Katakuri vs. Luffy Part 1

**Part one of Katakuri vs. Luffy. It's not a direct rehash of the fight, as I've added stuff into it from my own story and plot. There's some humor in the next chapter. Enjoy~**

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The soldiers inside the Mirror world were shocked when Katakuri, Ruffy and Luffy entered. Ruffy and Luffy landed on their feet, while Brulee landed ungracefully on her back and Katakuri landed in a kneel.

He glared intensely at Luffy. "You succeeded…" he said.

"Here, I can pummel you as much as I want!" Luffy shouted.

"Ruffy, move away," Katakuri commanded. Ruffy trotted away from between them and off to the side. Everyone had gotten out of the way already. But they were all shocked when Luffy shattered the mirror they'd come through. Even Ruffy was surprised, since he now had no way to get back. Well, there could be another mirror back to the ship, but it would be hard to find it. The mirrors were placed randomly along the walls.

It could be anywhere.

"The path to the ship!"

"He cut it off himself!"

Katakuri and Luffy still glared at each other. "So that's a captain's determination. But you're still no match for me. This place will be your graveyard."

Luffy clearly didn't like this, and replied, "I'll go back to the Sunny! After I take you down!"

"What an idiot! I can't believe he smashed the mirror himself!" a pirate said from the group watching. Ruffy scowled. "Are you trying to sacrifice yourself and let your friends escape?" the same one taunted.

"Shut up! If you're going to stay, then keep quiet!" Ruffy bellowed. The underlings flinched, and quieted.

Katakuri and Luffy ignored all of the talking, continuing to stare at each other angrily. "I'm gonna kick your ass!" Luffy proclaimed.

"Don't be sill-" a pirate started before Ruffy sent a wave of angry haki at them. He may not use it much, since he never left the islands and wouldn't need to unleash any haki or conqueror's haki, but it was still heavy and intense, and shut the pirates up again, this time hopefully for good. Honestly, he wanted to kick all of them out.

Katakuri put a hand up, himself making them stay quiet, and said, "You're dangerous, Straw Hat Luffy. Even though it was reckless, there aren't that many people that could do this much damage on the Big Mom pirates. If I let you get away, you'll be a bigger threat to Mama. but, in terms of abilities, you're on a way lower level than me. I've got to take care of you now."

Ruffy was watching Luffy's face through the corner of his eyes. Luffy did not like being told he was weak compared to his opponent, and looked even angrier than before. "I'm not gonna be defeated!"

"I'll teach you that there is always somebody better than you," the mochi man said. Luffy then attacked, punching and kicking, only Katakuri dodged each one gracefully, as his observation haki was probably the highest for anyone, considering he could see into the future with it.

He easily punched Luffy once in the face, who went flying backwards. "Is that all you've got?" the man said in an unimpressed tone.

While neither were looking, Ruffy picked up a piece of the mirror that had been attached to the Thousand Sunny and pocketed it. It could possibly come in handy later. It was so much quieter in the Mirror world. It was an appreciated change from all of the sounds that were bombarding his ears back in the outside world.

Luffy, steaming from second gear, sent a jet pistol, but was surprised when Katakuri was just as fast and easily met his fist before it got close to him. He dodged backwards from Luffy's punches, which hit the ground instead of his target, who dodged easily once he met the wall of mirrors.

Ruffy had to wonder if he was as fast as Luffy. He knew probably not in full human mode, but partial dragon mode, possibly. He could probably fly just as fast in his smaller dragon form, which was quicker but less intimidating and damaging if hit.

"If I really want to dodge, I can dodge forever," he said and was suddenly right in front of Luffy, who jumped backwards away from him. Katakuri had amazing stamina, probably more than Luffy's. After all, Katakuri was almost 30 years older than him, and had been a pirate _much _longer than the teen was.

The mochi man dodged every punch and kick effortlessly, and evaded "surprise attacks" that would probably never be surprising for someone with Katakuri's observation haki. That was the only thing letting Ruffy follow them. The other pirates couldn't see where either of them were as they fought.

Then, Katakuri didn't dodge when a gatling attack was upon him, and sent his own mochi fists to meet every single one thrown by Luffy. The idiot pirates watching, shouted, "No way!" and "Katakuri-sama!" as if it would hurt him. A tick appeared on Ruffy's forehead.

"Morons! Do you honestly think something like that would hurt him?!" he shouted, offended for his dad. Luffy and Katakuri seemed to have tuned out the idiot pirates watching.

"I'm following your lead on this," he said once both of their fists had stopped flying. Luffy actually only had two arms, while Ktakuri had more made out of armament coated mochi. "Am I doing it wrong?"

Ruffy was actually surprised with the taunt. He didn't even usually speak when fighting. But, Luffy could be a fun opponent. And he was still glaring at the teen like he wasn't glaring hatefully at his son's face. Ruffy wondered if he actually needed to be there. But, they had only really punched, which wasn't exactly a fatal attack to someone made of rubber.

Katakuri wasn't even winded, while Luffy was panting from the exertion. They really were on vastly different levels.

"But this way, it's more efficient," the man continued. Ruffy leaned against the wall, only to grit his teeth. It hurt the bruises on his back to lean up against something solid. So, he turned and leaned against the wall with his shoulder. He had a feeling this would be a long fight, and once they find a place to stick to, he'd try sitting down somewhere.

All of the mochi fists started attacking and punching Luffy everywhere, slamming him into one of the walls. Luffy was pummeled further and further into the wall, and if we wasn't rubber, a normal person, he'd be dead by now.

His eye twitched when the pirates started narrating the fight. _Yes, we all know that he's using more arms than Luffy is! You don't need to narrate it when we are all watching!_

Ruffy was more irritable than normal. It was understandable, after what kind of day it was, but he just wanted to kick these idiot pirates out. If he used conqueror's haki on them, they'd shut up, but also their bodies would stay there, and probably eventually wake up.

"Straw Hat only has two arms and Katakuri-sama has dozens!" Ruffy turned back to Katakuri. _One… two… three… _How do those pirates count?! There were twelve arms. How is that dozens? "He's throwing ten times more!"

So we go from having dozens, to ten multiplied by two is twenty. He looked at them in bewilderment.

"Katakuri-san, that's too brutal!" a pirate called.

"You think that this is too brutal?! This guy tried to kill Mama, and has helped to destroy the family and Whole Cake Island! Are you saying he deserves mercy?" Ruffy demanded. The pirate who spoke flushed, embarrassed and ashamed.

"Ruffy! Don't pay attention to them, they are all idiots," Katakuri said while he continued to brutally beat Luffy.

"Hmph," Ruffy huffed. But, when Katakuri stopped punching viciously, and Luffy fell, Ruffy saw the look that flashed across his face before it disappeared again. Like seeing Luffy like this was painful, or he regretted it. But he came to his senses when Ruffy quietly said, "He's not me," knowing the man cold hear it loud enough. None of the other pirates noticed this.

He punched Luffy one more time into the ceiling, when he fell down completely, hitting the floor of the Mirror world with a thud. But he brought himself shakily to his hands and knees. Neither Katakuri and his son expected Luffy to be subdued by that, though it was brutal and hurt Luffy since the mochi fists had been covered in haki.

"You're quite tough," the Sweet Commander commented as Luffy coughed on the floor, his eyes shadowed. "But I guess you see now." Ruffy wondered if Katakuri just wanted the fight to end here, and have Luffy give up so he didn't need to beat him to death. He hadn't pulled out his trident yet. Maybe he hoped he wouldn't have to. "As I said before, in terms of ability, anything you can do, I can do better. You're inferior to me in speed and power and everything."

This infuriated Luffy, and he went into second gear again, though, like before, it didn't put Katakuri at a disadvantage. "Rubber won't lose to mochi!" he roared. But, Katakuri kept his speed up just fine, and they were both two fast for any of the pirates to follow. It was even a bit difficult for Ruffy to follow with his eyes, though his observation haki let him know where they were, even if he couldn't keep up with his sense of sight.

"Are you trying to compete?" Katakuri asked when he and Luffy took a short break from chasing each other.

"I'm not gonna lose!" Luffy shouted as a punch was blocked with Katakuri's knee. "Gum gum hawk stomp!" and he kicked where his opponent had just been. Ruffy briefly wondered how he came up with the names of some of his attacks.

Of course, Katakuri dodged, and once the leg had snapped back to place, he was where Luffy had just kicked. "Is that it?" Ruffy was wondering if the reason Katakuri was taunting was that he wanted to get the fight over with. Angry, provoked people fight more sloppy than calm and collected ones, like Katakuri was right now.

"No way!"

Luffy thought he was doing a surprise attack, but before he could even attempt one, he was kicked in the face, and then the gut, flying back and crashing into another wall. How damaged would the mirror world be by the end of the fight?

Katakuri ignored the cheers from the audience, while Ruffy just watched in silence. The man didn't need cheering. In fact, he thought it could be quite annoying, unless it was Ruffy as a child, cheering Katakuri on for silly reasons, such for the mochi sculptures made for him. Katakuri's mochi powers had been a positive influence on Luffy's childhood.

"Are you going to show your power next? Give up already." Luffy just glared at him.

Ruffy watched in slight awe when Luffy breathed in so much air it expanded his chest and the rest of him, while he then pushed all of it into a fist. Luffy had told him about how he deflected cannon balls with his "gum gum balloon". Ruffy had wanted to see it when they were still in contact.

He had blown all of the air into his arm bone, making it quite larger than it normally was. The other pirates were shouting in shock, like they didn't expect Luffy to have crazy moves, while he coated his arm in armament haki. "Gum gum… elephant gun!"

Katakuri didn't miss a beat and made his own arm into a bigger size with mochi. Their fists collided and sparks of haki that would only come from two people with conqueror's haki split away from where the fists their fists were fighting. It created wind and soon Ruffy's hair was whipping around his face. Once again, Luffy was smashed into and breaking a wall.

"Did I do it right? The elephant gun?" the man asked as Luffy coughed, stuck in the wall he was forced into it so hard before he fell again before jumping up instantly. He formed two "elephant gun" fists, and the pirates apparently didn't notice him blowing them up, and acted as if they had magically appeared.

"Gum gum… grizzly magnum!" Luffy shouted. Ruffy had no clue what the name meant, but it looked like it'd be quite damaging to an enemy to be smashed by that, but not Katakuri, who copied the attack and made his bigger again, and knocked Luffy backwards easily.

Ruffy slightly felt bad for Luffy. All of his attacks were being returned but more damaging than his were. Katakuri was right: anything Luffy could do, he could do better. Luffy was surprised when the huge hands just turned into mochi and grabbed Luffy, trapping him and swinging him around at a high speed, with Luffy screaming the whole time. Katakuri dragged his face against the wall.

Again, Ruffy looked to Katakuri's face, and that same look from before flashed across it. He hated fighting Ruffy's twin, no matter if he was a dangerous enemy or not. And Luffy wasn't going to die easily. At least not just with mochi. Anything sharp was Luffy's real weakness. Katakuri could finish him off quicker with his trident, but really didn't want to impale Luffy to death.

"I'm fine," Ruffy said again, and Katakuri glared at Luffy, hating this.

Despite his being trapped and painfully dragged across the wall, Luffy broke away and shrunk his arms by pulling the air from then and into his foot. "Gum gum, gigantic axe!" and smashed it down on Katakuri. But he dodged, though the idiots again thought he had been damaged.

Ruffy was really getting tired of their banter, and finally couldn't handle it anymore. As they screamed about Katakuri mimicking the move again, and improving it, Ruffy ran around the fight and towards the audience. He let out a blast of conqueror's haki and knocked all of them out. He then shoved all of them to the far wall, in a dogpile.

He didn't know if it would help the two fighters, but it was getting on Ruffy's nerves, and he was already stressed as it was, and didn't need idiots commentating. Neither Luffy or Katakuri reacted to it, but they definitely werent preferring the pirates to shout and scream anymore.

Ruffy sat on top of one of them as he watched the fight. They were destroying this part of the mirror world, shattering mirrors and breaking walls. The twin probably would have stepped on glass if he werent wearing boots.

Neither was fazed as Katakuri brought down the giant foot, crushing Luffy. The sound echoed across the never ending hallway, and things were much quieter without the audience making a ruckus.

The Sweet Commander stared down at Luffy, who was coughing and laying on the ground. He didn't even try to hide the pained look on his face now that no one else but Ruffy would see it. He really wanted the fight to be over, but Luffy was still alive.

"No… not yet," he said between coughs.

As he tried to bring himself to his feet, Katakuri's transponder snail rang. When it was picked up, Ruffy grinned.

"_Katakuri, it's me," _Perospero's voice said.

"You escaped death, Big Brother Peros," he responded in a flat voice, though Ruffy could tell he was relieved.

"_Yes, barely."_

"What happened to Straw Hat's underlings?"

"_Believe it or not, they launched their ship and escaped out encirclement," _Perospero replied.

"Sorry. It was my fault they got away. I didn't break the system good enough," Ruffy said, sounding ashamed.

"It's fine, they won't escape alive even if they got away form Whole Cake Island. One of their allies killed himself, so we were right so far about them not leaving with their crew in one piece," Katakuri said, though he still had his eyes on Luffy, who was doing his best to recover and get up to fight again.

"_Regardless, I'm chasing them with Mama now. We're walking on the water. They're tenaciously trying to flee, but we'll catch up to them in no time. Amande and the other's fleet will be here soon, too._

"_No matter how much they struggle, they have no chance. How is it over there? I heard Straw Hat challenged you."_

"Yeah. He's down on the floor, pathetically. Not only did he cause all of this trouble for us and Mama, it's his stunt that has gotten Ruffy hurt. I'll finish him off here," Katakuri growled, staring down at Luffy, who was having trouble catching his breath.

For just a second, Luffy frowned and drew his brows together, but then it went back to his angry face. Maybe he just realized he wasn't just being beaten embarrassingly just for challenging Big Mom. His eyes flicked to Ruffy, whose purple bruised back was exposed and the mochi brace evident.

He still didn't get up though.

"_The way he died was so pathetic! That Pedro guy," _Perospero said over the snail. "_Straw Hat! You saw it, too, right? I guess he tried to kill me by sacrificing his own worthless life, but I'm very much alive, as you can hear. So he died for absolutely nothing! Right?!_

"_It is decided that you're going to die in vain, too, just like Pedro. Why don't you let him kill you already?" _and the snail was hung up. Ruffy watched his twin's face. His eyes were shadowed and teeth clenched. They were making fun of his dead friend's sacrifice. And though Ruffy was glad Perospero was alive, he thought that was his cruelest taunt of the day.

"Hey, Brulee, stop sleeping already. Our soldiers can't go anywhere if you're sleeping. Ruffy, wake them all up, please," Katakuri said. Ruffy nodded and changed into full dragon form, his big size, though he barely fit. He walked over to the pile of unconscious soldiers.

"Cover your ears," he warned those who were awake, and let out a roar so loud the mirrors nearest him shattered. The soldiers all woke up, screaming in panic. "Shut up. Dad wants you to go somewhere," Ruffy said and smoothly changed back into partial form, walked back to Katakuri, glancing at Luffy, who was still laying on the fractured floor of the Mirror world.

"Just when he thought he was going to save his crew valiantly, look how he is now," Katakuri said, though Ruffy saw him get up. He tapped his dad on the shoulder as Brulee shouted, "Brother!"

But the mochi man didn't need either of them to alert him. He knew with his haki. He didn't turn around. "You couldn't beat me with your speed and power. What are you going to use next, Straw Hat?" and he finally looked over his shoulder at thr heaving and angry teen. "How boring. You're just going to use both," the father said in a disappointed voice.

When Luffy finally got up, and ran towards Katakuri, the man said, "You must know your capacities by now," and very easily dodged each massive fist Luffy threw at him. Ruffy had jumped away, not wanting to get in the way. The attack didn't last long before his twin was thrown back against the wall.

The mochi arms that had knocked Luffy back flattened against the floor and lifted Katakuri up into the air. "You have no ability that is better than mine!" and his large, haki covered fists beat Luffy into the ground harder than before.

When Ruffy knew the soldiers and pirates would start cheering again, he turned around and gave them all a threatening look. They stayed silent.

Luffy once again tried to get up, but this time collapsed on his face, which was bleeding heavily from the brutal beating. Katakuri looked at him with disdain this time instead of that look he gave each time he hurt Luffy too much that it seemed like he wouldn't get up. Ruffy looked at Luffy with a frown.

Was it over? Luffy wasn't dead, so did that mean they weren't done?

"Brulee! Take those soldiers and go set the Straw Hats ship on fire or something," Katakuri said dismissively, like it was no big deal.

"Okay!" Brulee replied. A long necked women and long necked man came over, one holding a mirror.

"Big Sister Brulee! We found a mirror that links to the Straw Hat's ship!" Ruffy was surprised that they'd found one on such short notice. Even if they could ask the mirrors for one that linked to a specific place, the mirror world was huge. But, it was lucky.

"There must be one or two more!" the other one said cheerfully. Brulee grinned.

"All right! Let's shoot flaming arrows at Straw Hat's ship!" she said excitedly. Of course, she wanted revenge on them for what they put her through. Making her be part of the plan to betray Mama. "I hope they get done in by Mama while in frenzy from the fire."

Ruffy and Katakuri moved out of the way when one of Luffy's normal sized and uncoated fists came stretching through the group, trying to grab or shatter the mirror in hand. "Give me the mirror! Leave them alone!"

Then his head was slammed into the ground from a kick from Katakuri, who sounded like he _should _be offended, but wasn't. "I thought you were in a one-on-one duel with me, Straw Hat."

"Ha ha!" the long necked siblings laughed. "Take that!" Brulee grinned at him wickedly as two arrows were set on fire and aimed at the mirror.

"Now, burn the Straw Hat's ship!" As they aimed arrows at the ship, Luffy looked at them with a crazed expression, but couldn't quite pick himself up. Ruffy slightly pitied him, but wouldn't do anything to stop it from happening. He wasn't a traitor, and Brulee deserved revenge on them. Sanji would be the only Straw Hat left standing if the ship caught on fire and those aboard has no place to evacuate to. Two of them were devil fruit users, though Jinbei could probably put out most of the fire if it wasn't big by using his water powers.

Well, the arrows were aimed at the inside of the ship, so that would be more difficult to fight against. "Hold it!"

"No, you hold it," Katakuri growled. "Leave my little brother and sisters alone!" and he made duplicates of his legs from mochi and stomped them down at him, but Luffy dodged. Ruffy wished he'd just give up already. Again, he just wanted to go home, treat his back and get his arm fixed up slower and more thoroughly, and try and forget this whole day even happened.

"I won't let you do it!" Luffy screamed, and aimed his hand at Ruffy's aunts and uncle. But, Katakuri knocked the arm out of the way and it crashed into the wall.

The long necked siblings laughed, and Ruffy frowned irritably before shouting, "Just fire the arrows already!"

"Noo!" Luffy shouted angrily, but with desperation as he tried to send a jet pistol at them, only to have his arm caught by Katakuri's hand, and dragged down and slammed into the wall.

"Dad, just- just kill him already," Ruffy said. But, when he said that, Katakuri immediately stiffened. Pudding was right. Katakuri couldn't kill him. "Can you-?" he began quietly.

"I can!" Katakuri snapped, glaring hatefully at Luffy. Ruffy frowned, but said nothing else of it. None of the others heard the exchange.

"But-"

"If I kill him, then you can finally start going around with your _actual face _seen! And not be so close to dragon form all day, every day! Mama can finally have no good reason to harm or kill you!" the man replied in a harsh whisper. "We can make it clear no one screws with our family without being killed. It's fine, I can do it."

While Katakuri and his son were bickering, _finally,_ the damn arrows were shot into the men's room of the Thousand Sunny, and were embedded into the lockers hanging on the wall.

Luffy coughed on the floor. "D-damn you!" he screamed. But there was no way he could even fit through that mirror to put the flames out, which were slowly spreading across the lockers and wall.

Luffy swore and looked down to see a mirror fragment. Katakuri saw what he was going to do, and tried to smash him on the ground, but Luffy moved around and out of the way as he tried to get ahold of Nami. Ruffy didn't even know if that was the same mirror.

"Nami! Jinbei, can you hear me? Somebody! RESPOND!" he shouted at the small shard of mirror. He continued to call out in the mirror, barely dodging Katakuri's hits. Finally when someone did respond, it echoed from two spots. Luffy's hand, and Ruffy's pocket. It was the shard of mirror he'd picked up at the beginning.

Ruffy had Luffy's voice. He might be able to trick the Straw Hats into something. He didn't know what, but it was now an option. Luffy looked horrified, knowing what Ruffy could do now. If Luffy were incapacitated, Ruffy could pretend to be him and lure his crew in a bad spot.

"_Luffy it's me! Are you alright?" _Nami's voice shouted, the sound of cannonballs could be heard faintly.

"There are still some mirrors on the ship, aren't there?!"

"_What?"_

"Maybe in the boys' room or the bathroom?!"

As Luffy spoke, more arrows were shot and the fire spread wider. It wouldn't be long before anyone on the ship notices.

"_Luffy?! What about the mirrors?" _Nami called.

"Break them all! To pieces!" he said with conviction and anger. Nami protested, that he'd have no way to get back. Ruffy wondered why Luffy didn't tell her about the _ship on FIRE _first. "I don't know! I'll figure something out."

It seemed like someone finally noticed that the mens' room was on fire, as they could be heard shouting through the mirror Brulee was holding. "Now you guys, keep shooting!" she cackled.

Luffy was up and running, holding the mirror fragment so tight his hand bled, though he didn't seem to notice it. "Stop it, you guys!" he shouted. Katakuri kicked him in the gut before he even got close to his little siblings, and pinned him to the wall with his elongated mochi foot. His shoe spanned the length of Luffy's entire torso, effectively keeping him trapped against the wall. "D-Damn it!" he swore.

"Serves you right! Now, keep shooting," Brulee laughed. Luffy faintly told them to stop again. Ruffy wondered why it hadn't caught on to Chopper and Brook, people who had used the Mirror world and Brulee's powers to their advantage, yet they couldn't figure out the arrows were being shot through the mirror and they should break it? And these two shouldn't even be alive anymore. They were suffocated, for over three minutes, yet they come out fine and dandy?

At least Perospero didn't die doing that, like their jaguar mink friend died. How it was for no reason and his sacrifice meant nothing and did nothing other than injuring Perospero to some unknown degree.

But, Ruffy was so thankful he wasn't dead. Opera was already dead, and he didn't know about the state of the others. That castle had fallen, and even Ruffy, who had been a huge dragon, had been caught and injured in it. Streusen had saved as many as he could, but there still had to be others who hadn't made it.

He wondered if the youngest were alright. If they got caught up in the collapse, it would be assumed they were dead as well. Though he didn't wish anyone dead, the one he could live with dying the _most_ would have to be Flampe. He wondered where that brat had ended up.

"Those of you who will march on this ship! Follow me!" Brulee said.

"Wait, it's on fire-" but Ruffy's words were talked over with Luffy shouting, "Oh no!" He kicked out a foot and stretched his leg to kick Katakuri, who was actually taken by surprise and his own leg snapped back into place. But he was composed in a second.

"Nami! Hurry up and break the mirrors! All of them!" he ordered. "An army of enemies is on their way and I can't stop them all by myself!" Luffy shouted when Nami protested. "Let me just focus on this guy."

Everyone could hear loud and clear the panic and screaming coming from the mirror, along with Mama's voice, which only Ruffy could hear, as it was drowned out by the Straw Hats screaming and the loud noises of the waves.

"What's wrong?!" Luffy shouted but got no answer. "Hey, can you hear me?! Somebody answer!"

The screaming continued until the dialogue was too jumbled to make out anything, and the sound of waves crashing we heard. Then, Katakuri's snail rang. "_This is Perospero. Hey, Katakuri. We took care of all of them."_

Luffy looked horrified and then started shouting names at his mirror piece. No one answered, and for the moment Luffy was completely ignored. All but Ruffy werent focusing on him. He and Luffy hadn't spoken a word to each other since the whole thing started, and had only met gazes a couple times. Ruffy did his absolute best to not make eye contact with his twin.

"Oh no!" Brulee said, pulling Ruffy out of his thoughts and Luffy stop shouting. "We were gonna invade the ship now! The plan is aborted, guys. It seems that ship has already sunk into the ocean."

Ruffy, however, doubted this. He pulled out his small piece of mirror and placed his ear next to it. It was very faint, but he could hear speaking. _Green room? Inside the wave…_

"Dad! They're not dead. They're inside the wave I think. That's what I'm hearing through the mirror." Luffy's face lit up at his words. "But I could be wrong."

"I wouldn't put it past Jinbei to save them from a wave like that," Katakuri grumbled.

"But, it's strange sis," Joscaparone said. "Yeah, the other side of the mirror doesn't look like it's underwater. Look."

"There's no way," Brulee replied. Suddenly, mirrors began to shatter all over the walls and ceiling. They were all connected to the Straw Hat's ship and now they were all being broken. They had no way to get back onto the ship, but Luffy couldn't either. But Ruffy had to admit, no matter how much he disliked their crew and what they've done, and that Luffy told them to, it was a good call as a captain in his opinion.

"What's going on?!" Brulee shouted.

"They're breaking all of the mirrors so no one can go back onto their ship. They abandoned their captain under his orders. I assumed you could hear that," Ruffy said. The others turned around and glared briefly.

"Not everyone has your super senses, Ruffy!" Brulee shouted.

"But… he said it pretty loudly." He turned to Katakuri. "You heard it, too, right?" Katakuri nodded.

"I thought everyone would hear it, too. He seems to shout everything he says," the man said shortly.

"We're all the way over here! How can we-" Brulee shot back.

"Okay, it's not important, let's just forget about it and not be distracted," Ruffy said, playing peacemaker, though he was the one to start it, which his aunt pointed out irritably. "Jeez, sorry," he muttered.

"Stop joking around!" Luffy shouted angrily.

Katakuri narrowed his eyes at Luffy, irritated that he was shouting at his son and family. "You were the one who got distracted first, werent you?" Luffy glowered at him, and stood up to fight again. "Everyone get clear," he ordered, even to Ruffy. He trotted back to the side, while the others and Brulee hid behind one of the towers in the middle of the mirror world.

"Wait! Wait a minute," Ruffy called as he noticed Luffy looking down at his mirror. Ruffy pulled his out of his pocket and listened as Chopper spoke.

"_We need to talk so get away from the enemies," _Chopper whispered. Luffy's face fell as he looked to Ruffy holding his own mirror fragment.

"That's not possible anymore, Chopper. Ruffy picked up one of the pieces of mirror and can hear everything both of us say. They all know you are alive, and about something called a 'green room'," he explained.

"_He's giving away all the stuff you wrote to him about!"_ Chopper said angrily. Ruffy glared down at the mirror, sick of them putting all of the blame on _him _when _they _were the ones to cause this damn mess. They probably didn't even think about Ruffy, or the fact that this was his home they were screwing up. Sure, he didn't live on Whole Cake Island, but Luffy was the one to set off Mama's hunger pangs!

Multiple islands would be destroyed if she stops by them, maybe hallucinating about the stupid wedding cake. Why did Luffy need to make a stupid grand entrance when it messed up _his _own and his allies plans.

Ruffy then joined in the conversation. "I already told you, _Chopper. _You guys messed up my home! And I'm not gonna just sit back and let you continue to do so!" Ruffy shouted into the mirror. "So stop calling me a traitor or some _bullshit_ like that!"

Katakuri and the other Charlottes were surprised with Ruffy swearing. He rarely swore anything other than "damn".

Chopper looked at him through the piece of mirror with a frown. Ruffy glared back, where Katakuri could see the conflicted expression on Luffy's face. But, that face left as resolve came back.

"Are you guys alright, though?" Luffy asked as he started running. He knew Ruffy could hear it, so maybe he was fleeing so he could continue to talk with Chopper and not get attacked from his opponent.

"What happened to you guys? The candy guy said the Sunny sank!" he shouted as he fled, throwing his red jacket off and leaving it behind him.

"_We thought it'd sink, too! But Jinbei was awesome!"_ Chopper replied, "_If it werent for Jinbei, we'd all had drowned in the sea!"_ he cried.

Jinbei again. The Straw Hats had a real advantage with him on their ship.

Another person came into view on the mirror. The bunny mink. "We're all fine Luffy!" she said. Then there was Brook. "Luffy-san, we broke all of the mirrors on the ship!"

Luffy panted as he ran, "Okay! That's good!" he shouted, sprinting as fast as he could. No one was following him yet. There was no need, as Katakuri could catch up to him in a second, and he was listening in on the conversation with Ruffy.

"_Now the enemies can't get on board, but now you can't either!" _the skeleton shouted in worry. Luffy shrugged it off, saying he'd figure something out.

"_No you can't! You don't even have a plan!"_ Nami shouted, taking the mirror fragment and glaring at Luffy in it. Ruffy kept his face out of view, and just held it up to his ear. With no reflection from him in it, the mirror just looked back to a normal mirror.

"It's not exactly gonna be a good one, since the bad guys can hear everything we're saying!" Luffy replied in frustration.

"_Then just steal the mirror back! Just reach for it and crush it, or something!"_

"It's not that easy! Ruffy is strong, and also has Katakuri with him! I can't take the mirror back!" By now only Ruffy could hear, as Luffy had gotten out of range for the normal sense of sounds.

"_Okay, jeez, sorry! But you need to know Sanji is making the cake at Cacao island with Pudding and Chiffon. That's where we're heading."_

"Nami, stop giving away information like that! They can all hear you." Nami ignored him, and kept telling him their plan.

"_We'll be there in about ten hours at the earliest! Around 1 AM! And you get there first, so it doesn't matter if they know the plan. Find a mirror at Cacao island and meet us there!"_

Luffy couldn't respond before he was caught by mochi. It hadn't mattered how far he ran, he was caught easily. "Damn! I can't get it off!" he shouted as he squirmed and flailed in the puddle of mochi sticking him to the ground and not letting him go. Katakuri slowly walked to him, who was still trying to get out of the mochi.

"_Luffy? Are you still there? Are you listening?! Luffy, stay focused!" _But, she couldn't talk anymore before Katakuri kicked Luffy and the mirror, shattering it into little pieces.

Ruffy looked back into his piece of mirror. "Luffy is going to die here. You'll never see him again, and if you do, it'll be to show that he lost to dad," he said harshly. He pocketed the mirror again, and followed after where his dad had gone.


	9. Katakuri vs Luffy Part 2

**Picks off immediately after last chapter. This chapter is when the plot diverges from the cannon story line. Luffy isn't the main character so it doesn't matter what happens in the long run for him. Enjoy~ (screw you Flampe)**

* * *

He still wasn't sure if he could kill the enemy pirate, but he wasn't going to doubt him out loud again. If he really couldn't kill him, then Ruffy would do his best to incapacitate him and then bring him to someone else who _could _kill Ruffy's twin. He wasn't going to be the one to kill him. He was vehement on that. And that opinion wouldn't change.

Ruffy looked bewildered when Luffy pulled his mouth out in his hands, stretching his face, as he was kicked into the wall, face first, leaving a deep hole. His mouth was back to normal, but he had something in his hands.

He gasped for air as his friends were calling his name faintly through the small pieces, as he was on all fours on the ground. Katakuri jumped up high, and copied Luffy's giant, haki covered, foot move, but Luffy was able to evade this time and ran away as fast as he could.

Ruffy looked surprised when he was able to dodge, but it didn't last long and he was soon back on the ground on his stomach, being pummeled by multiple of the same foot. Then he could finally see what Luffy had been holding in his mouth and hands. The tiny pieces of the mirror. He was kicked dozens of time on his back as he crawled back to the fragments.

"_Luffy?"_

"_You're fine, right Luffy-san?!"_

"_What's the matter, Luffy?!"_

He didn't answer before he was in the center of a deep crater that was caused by one of Katakuri's enlarged kicks. He gasped for air as blood dripped out of his mouth and nose. But he put on a brave act, and managed to use a normal voice to tell them to hurry up, and that he'd be there waiting soon.

"See you later guys!" he said cheerfully, though he was anything but, bleeding and hurting on the ground. But, he tried to pick himself back up.

"Ruffy, go back a bit," Katakuri said, pulling his trident out of his arm, finally getting really serious. Luffy was obviously not going to die the way the Sweet Commander _wanted: _no blood. So now he had to resort to that. Luffy's biggest weakness were sharp weapons. Rubber may make many attacks blunt and not fatal, but his skin couldn't protect against sharp weapons. Besides using armament haki, that is.

Ruffy backed away a bit, and was back to one of the walls. "'I'm not gonna die here'. That's what you'll say next. Is that all you have to say before you die?" Katakuri asked, more like mocked.

"I'm not gonna die here!" Luffy shouted anyways, angrily, when he saw Katakuri's huge weapon aimed at him.

Ruffy looked at his dad's face carefully. He was sweating a bit. Nervous, maybe, about killing Luffy now that he had a real weapon to do so. He was strong enough to do it physically, but now that it was more inevitable now, he wasn't just angry anymore. But Luffy couldn't see anything but anger on his face. Ruffy bit his lip, hoping this would be over soon.

Then they could both eat donuts. Ruffy was hungry again.

"No one dies because they want to. Most deaths come unwillingly. You will die here soon!" Katakuri said. Ruffy was honestly startled when he heard Brulee's laughter nearby. He turned to see her head sticking out of a mirror, laughing at Luffy.

"He's right! Why don't you drop dead already, Straw Hat?!" she laughed.

"Branch?"

"It's Brulee!" Finding this as a strange exchange, he could only assume that was what Luffy had been calling her when the traitors and enemy pirates had used her against her will. Even thinking about it made Ruffy angry, and Katakuri, too. "Don't think you can beat him with spirit, punk! Big bro isn't just an unbeatable man! He's a superhuman who has never once been on his back since he was born!"

Ruffy had to disagree with this. Maybe not in public, but Katakuri had definitely been on his back in his life. Like when Ruffy was still a baby and toddler, Katakuri would lay on his back with him sleeping on his chest. Or every time he had his special-donut-eating-time, he laid on his back. And the fact that he had a bed in his room at all also disproved what Brulee said.

So that statement was completely debunked, but he didn't correct her. "Stop it, Brulee," Katakuri said, but she continued.

"The moment he was born, he stood on his feet, and slept on a chair, so the legend says!"

Ruffy shared a glance with Katakuri, who looked irritated and even slightly embarrassed with the over the top bragging. "He's never once laid down in his life! He's a man that looks down on the ground! He's always noble!"

Ruffy put a hand over his mouth to not laugh. Katakuri sent him a death glare, and Ruffy had to hold his hand over his mouth harder, looking away from his aunt and the enemy until he calmed himself.

If he werent Katakuri's son, he'd probably be dead or wounded by then.

"Calm and strong!" Brulee continued, not having seen her brother and his son's exchange. She just smirked back at the person she was taunting. "He's perfect in every way! That's who our big bro Katakuri is! He's the masterpiece of a Charlotte and it's presumptuous for a short-ass like you to even fight him!"

Ugh, she sounded like _Flampe. _Ruffy involuntarily rolled his eyes.

Luffy had had enough. "Shut up, you're annoying! Go away!" and he aimed a punch at her, which she was clearly scared of. But, not unexpectedly for Ruffy, Katakuri caught the stretched arm right before it hit his sister's face. He squeezed it painfully, and a vein was visible on his forehead. Well, more than the other ones that came when you had a scowl as extreme as Katakuri did.

"What are you trying to do to my little sister?!" he demanded. He easily picked Luffy off his feet and swung him around by the extended arm and into the wall.

Ruffy's eyes widened when Katakuri got ready to spear Luffy with his trident, spinning it extremely fast, and stabbed at him. "Mochi thrust!" he called, the first time he called out an attack. Unlike Luffy, who shouted out every move he made. He bit his lip, expecting Luffy to be headless after this attack, but he dropped down just in time to not have his head taken off.

"Ah! That was close!" he shouted after looking up to the hole left after the mochi thrust. He grabbed his head like he was surprised he dodged it. That he still even had a head. He looked thoroughly troubled, but his face relaxed again and back to the expression he'd been wearing most of the fight.

Then the whole structure cracked and if Luffy hadn't moved, he'd have been a pancake, though he was made of rubber, so maybe that wouldn't apply for him. As he sat, staring at the place he would have been crushed, Katakuri was then behind him. "This trident is called mole." Luffy glared up at him.

"You've gone after my siblings too many times. Your hand or your foot? Name the body parts you can most do without. I'll sever them for you!"

Ruffy was biting his lip, wondering if his dad really was going all out. Ruffy had seen him fight enemy pirates and marines, and even the strongest ones, he didn't talk this much. So it was strange to him.

Brulee popped up again. "Please start with his head, big bro!"

"Brulee!" Ruffy snapped. "Stay out of this! Sit and watch but stop interfering!" But at the same time, Luffy shouted, "Shut up, you fool!"

Brulee looked surprised with Ruffy's outburst, but did as she was told, and left that mirror and a further one, more out of the way. Katakuri ignored the short and angry exchanges, and used the same mochi thrust that he'd used only a few moments prior. Luffy spun out of the way before running again.

Katakuri and his opponent got further and further away from where Ruffy was, but he did his best to keep up, biting his lip about the jarring it was causing against his arm. But he would be there the moment Katakuri finally killed his technical _sorta_-stepson. Though he obviously didn't have the close relationship with him as he did with his real son.

Luffy barely missed each stab, centimeters away from a strike that would kill him. He fell on his butt, and was starting to panic a bit. Ruffy could tell, as Katakuri's attacks were getting more brutal as he aimed for the head and neck each time, wanting to finish it in a second and not have to focus on what was left afterwards.

They finally stopped and Ruffy, who was still running after them, stopped suddenly and skidded into one of the fixtures in the middle of the mirror world. "Ow," he said lamely as he rubbed his forehead, thoroughly relieved no one saw him.

Except Brulee, who laughed at him. He slammed his good hand into the wall and dug out a handful of rocks, throwing it at the mirror she was watching from. "Shut up, don't laugh!" he shouted.

Brulee popped out from another mirror, but Luffy talking got both of their attentions. "Damn! I can't hit him with my haki..." he grumbled. "I can't hit him without my haki! On top of that, he's able to hit me precisely where I dodge. This is doubling my fatigue."

"Why is he talking to himself in the middle of a fight?" Brulee asked in a whisper, suddenly right next to Ruffy. He shrugged one arm.

"Dunno."

"I feel the same," Katakuri replied to Luffy. "No one's ever evaded my attacks like that. It's stressing me out!"

"Hey, Brulee. I thought he was _always_ _calm," _Ruffy mocked quietly, still thinking everything she had said then was hilarious.

"Peanut gallery, shut it!" Katakuri shouted as he went after Luffy again. Both of the onlookers shut up, with Brulee looking much more bothered by the words. Katakuri told Ruffy to shut up all the time, mostly when Ruffy was messing with him, but not his siblings.

Luffy attempted to grab the trident, when Katakuri pulled it back. "You tried to take the Mole away from me…"

"Damn, and I almost got it!" Luffy lamented. His eyes widened when Katakuri threw his arm out next to him.

"Ruffy, further away!" he yelled, before he said, "flowing mochi!" Brulee went back into her mirror as Ruffy ran out of range as the ground became mochi, and would swallow him up, even if it wasn't intentioned by Katakuri.

Ruffy sprinted further as the ground, walls and fixtures around him turned into white mochi. Luffy bounced around, somewhat pathetically, as he tried not to get swallowed by the mochi. "This is what Doflamingo did!" the teen shouted.

"Of course, my ability has been awakened." Katakuri was the only one in the whole family who had an awakened devil fruit. Ruffy hoped his would, too, some day. But he didn't know what to expect as he was a zoan, not paramecia.

At the last moment, Luffy tried to pull himself away by stretching his arm so he could hold onto a mirror on the wall. It wasn't going to work and he was caught by multiple strands of mochi going after him.

Ruffy could only follow what was happening by listening now, as he was around the corner where the floor had not turned into mochi. "Gear four?" Katakuri asked. "That's interesting." Ruffy assumed he had seen into the future.

"Muscle balloon!" Luffy called out, naming his attack _again. _But whatever it was, didn't go far as the sounds of Luffy being pummeled in the face were heard. He noticed that the ground had slowly turned back to normal, and hurried back to the scene to see Luffy enveloped by mochi, unable to get out, and being tossed around inside.

"Why do I have to stand here and watch, when I know you'll upgrade your power?" Katakuri asked. "Oi, Straw Hat Luffy, I'm telling you I'm not underestimating you! Partly since you're Ruffy's biological brother."

Luffy blinked at that statement. Well, both statements. But then, he looked up and saw the ceiling and walls coming towards him. "Mirror mochi!" he called.

Ruffy watched with wide eyes. Was this it? Finally? Katakuri's eye was twitching slightly, and the sweat was back.

"What?! Those are mochi, too?!" Luffy shouted. "Oh, no! Once they come down on me, I'll be buried alive!" This did seem like the least messy way to kill him. And Katakuri wouldn't even need to see his dead body. He'd just be suffocated under there.

"Yes, you'll be choked. You're dead. No one has ever gotten away from my mochi!"

Luffy screamed one more time before he was squashed under big blobs of wall-mochi. Ruffy walked to Katakuri, while Brulee was somewhere else. They both watched Luffy's stretched arm flail around, trying to find purchase and some way to dig himself out. Finally, it fell flat down and didn't move again.

"Are you-?"

"I'm fine," Katakuri snapped, and turned and quickly walked away to the cooks waiting for him to have his _merienda_ (donut time). Ruffy watched him go in sadness, especially as he shut himself away in the mochi house he'd eat in when he wasn't at home, so no one saw his full face.

Ruffy stared down at the hand laying limp on the ground, the rest of Luffy under the blobs of heavy mochi. He sat down next to it, not knowing how to feel. He was sad that his dad had had to do it, but it was what needed to happen.

He couldn't understand how Katakuri could eat after killing Luffy like this. Well, maybe it was stress eating, or he just wanted to not think about it. And donuts were his favorite food. Plus, he had just expended a ton of energy, and needed to eat something, though it wasn't healthy. Well, according to Katakuri (and most of the others in Totto Land) "sugar is a source of power!"

He looked at the ceiling, seeing his sad reflection from the mirrors above. It was from a mirror that he noticed that Luffy's hand was gone. He stood up and backed away as the mochi started moving around. Ruffy snarled as he watched the mochi move. Luffy wasn't dead! The sweet jiggled and then at the top sucked inwards.

Ruffy was in partial mode, hands in a clawed position. Luffy should have just been useful and _stayed dead! _It was hard enough for his dad to kill him _once! _He could hear what Luffy was doing inside the mochi.

The jackass was _eating_ his way out! It was like Chopper and Brook! Was it impossible for any Straw Hat to suffocate? Did they even need to breathe?! Well, Brook was debatable, but the other two… just, _how?_

When Luffy, fat and full of mochi, popped out the top, Ruffy launched himself at him, knocking him off of what was left of the pile of mochi. He only had one arm, so couldn't do much damage. But, he straddled Luffy and bashed his good fist, covered in haki, on Luffy's face.

"Why don't you stay dead?!" he screamed, the first thing said really directly to Luffy while making any sort of eye contact.

"Idiot, I'm not gonna just die from that!" and he dragged them to the side, until he was on top of Ruffy now. He punched on Ruffy's face, too. He quickly lost the weight, which was very weird and unnatural, while he hit his twin.

"It was hard enough for him to kill you once!" Ruffy raged, rolling them to the side again. "Just die already!"

"Never!" Ruffy bit Luffy's hand, his jagged teeth stabbing into the skin. The hand was yanked backward, blood flowing from the punctures, and punched down on Ruffy's nose and mouth, some of his teeth tearing the insides of his cheeks. He scratched his claws down Luffy's cheek and neck, cutting him.

Luffy looked at him in rage. "How could you tell everyone all of the secrets I told you?! I thought you were my brother!"

"THAT'S WHAT I THOUGHT, TOO! That's why I tried to help you get Sanji back! Then, you crash the wedding?! Risk everyone's lives?! Who cares if the Vinsmokes died?! They're assholes! Then, you tried to kill Mama?!

"You knew I lived here! You knew I would be at the wedding, and you still tried to destroy my family! And now my home is at risk as well! You just had to eat the cake! You should have just taken Sanji and left!

"Now look at the mess you caused?! Big Mom is now trying to destroy everything to get to this _imaginary _cake you have!"

Luffy looked bewildered, but also angry. "We're pirates! We do what we want!"

"We were brothers! Family! Did you not think of me when you planned what you did?! Did you completely forget about me?! I know you've had brothers! I haven't, and now that's ruined. JUST DIE ALREADY!" Ruffy screamed, back to being under on the bottom.

Luffy looked hurt, but didn't get off. "I- I'm so-."

"It's too late for apologies, Straw Hat!" Ruffy shouted, blood flying from his mouth and getting on Luffy's face. Tears came out of his eyes as he stared up at the person he had wanted to be close to some day.

"I hate you and your crew! They act like _I _betrayed _you! _None of you will understand, never! Get off of me!"

Suddenly a crash sound came from behind the mochi pile. Katakuri was there, his scarf gone, forgotten in his haste to get to a very upset son. He saw red when he saw Luffy was pinning his _son _to the ground, blood coming out of his mouth. He had never been so furious before he was now.

He reached down and yanked Luffy up, throwing him up into the ceiling while he grabbed Ruffy, who was hysterical, and hugged him. "Ruffy, calm down," he said in a soothing voice, though the anger was palpable.

"You won't understand, dad! You have so much family, and I had one brother and now it's like _this. _This stupid fucking mess of a day!" he sobbed, and started beating his fists on Katakuri's chest, though it didn't hurt him. His sobs turned into jumbled words, and Katakuri and Luffy couldn't understand it.

"Shhh…" the man tried to comfort, and turned to glare at Luffy, only to see the look of guilt on his face, blood dripping down his face from the claw marks. He was biting his lower lip as he watched his twin sob his eyes out, because of _him. _It was his fault, and you can clearly see on his face that he realized what he'd really done.

In all 19 years of raising Ruffy, Katakuri had never seen him so upset. Ruffy was never one to throw tantrums as a child, besides his incessant whining when hungry. He also never had real teenage arguments and defiance. But, in his whole life, Ruffy had never been this openly upset and angry. Even when Pudding had been beaten and humiliated as a child, and Ruffy lost control for the first time, it wasn't this bad. He really hoped the pills he took daily and his age would keep him in control of the mythical zoan.

But he was right, that Katakuri couldn't know how it felt to be him. He had over 80 younger siblings, and two older. Sure, Lola left, but he still had everyone else. Ruffy had been an only child for most of his life, and he knew how happy his son had been to find he had a brother out there somewhere.

And now, said brother betrayed and tried to ruin Ruffy's home and family. It must hurt painfully. "Ruffy, calm down," Katakuri repeated quietly but also sternly. But, Ruffy was just seeming to grow angrier. His haki was increasing, and when he briefly did look up and saw Luffy, his anger and haki spiked again.

"Ruffy, I-"

"_Shut up!" _Ruffy roared, not wanting to hear his voice. Katakuri jerked them to the side so Luffy was now behind Ruffy and out of view. Luffy didn't talk again. But of course, they both knew Luffy was still there. "I hate him!" Ruffy screamed, and hit Katakuri's chest as he held him closer. He wasn't gonna let Ruffy kill Luffy in a fit of unexpected rage.

"Kill him!"

"I'm not going to kill him. Not when you're like this," Katakuri said sternly. "Why are you still sticking around?" he asked Luffy angrily. "Leave while you can! If you don't, I'll do what I have to to keep you here!"

Conflict was clear on the Straw Hat captain's face. He had probably never run from a fight and didn't want to start now. "Even if you run, since your opponent is me, no one would jeer at you."

"I- I'm sorry for what happened," Luffy began in a hesitant voice, but even hearing it, made Ruffy angrier. Plus, the way he worded it wasn't an apology of what he'd done, but what had happened in general. Ruffy snarled, and Katakuri gripped tightly onto him.

"Straw Hat, leave now," Katakuri grumbled. "Now!" Luffy finally ran off as Ruffy heaved and trembled against his father's chest, who was restraining him until he could calm down, now that Luffy was gone.

"Ruffy, please calm down. You can come back from this. Luffy is gone. He isn't here anymore, and is getting far away. C'mon, breathe deep breaths," the father soothed, rubbing Ruffy's scalp. His haki dimmed very very slowly. Katakuri thought he was going to finally calm down and get back into full control.

But then, "Hehe, look, look! Ruffy's _crying! _Like a little baby," was heard from behind the corner. That damn Flampe! What the _hell _was she doing here for?! Of course, Ruffy heard this loud and clear, and his intense anger was back, stronger than before Luffy left. He began to shake and snarl, trying to get out of Katakuri's grip and attack her.

She didn't get the picture, even when his haki was going crazy. She assumed Katakuri would protect her, probably. But, Ruffy had been almost unstoppable as a child when he'd lost control, now he was an adult, and his transformation was huge. Katakuri might not be able to stop him in time.

So, he did as fast as he could and released his conqueror's haki right at Ruffy, who was still in his arms. Ruffy trembled for a moment before he went limp. Katakuri sighed, and sharply turned his head with a furious glare to the direction Flampe and her fake-friends were.

"He's so pathetic! Crying and then having to be put to sleep. Why does big brother even bother with him?" she laughed some more.

"You all, shut your mouths!" Katakuri shouted. He heard a low rumbling noise from the limp Ruffy, who had his eyes opened even though he was unconscious. But part of him was still awake.

The man was thrown from Ruffy as he immediately transformed into full dragon mode, his eyes unseeing. Ruffy was still unconscious, but his dragon side was fully awake. He grew to his biggest form, wings pressing against the walls.

Flampe finally seemed to get what she had done and had caused, and screamed. Katakuri didn't know where Brulee was, so couldn't have Flampe evacuate. She screamed as Ruffy lumbered towards her. He didn't seem to care about his broken arm, or maybe not remember or even feel it.

He roared so loud that all of the mirrors close to him shattered and rained glass down on Flampe, cutting her in some places. "Ruffy stop!" Katakuri shouted, ducking the tip of his tail smashing against the wall where he had just been standing.

Immediately, Ruffy's huge legs were trapped in five feet deep mochi, into the floor. The tail was a problem, so Katakuri got out of range and ducked under the dragon's stomach. "Flampe, run!" he shouted. Ruffy opened his mouth, and Katakuri heard the clicking sound that always came before he blew out fire.

In a second, mochi was wrapped around Ruffy's snout, to keep his mouth closed. Katakuri wrapped mochi around his son's abdomen, forcing him deeper into the mochi. He thrashed around, one arm breaking free of the mochi, only to sink right back into it.

Flampe hadn't run, and instead was sitting on the ground in front of Ruffy, frozen in fear. Her "friends" had already ran. Katakuri wrapped some mochi around the dragon's eyes, trying to calm him down with less stimuli.

And, despite someone else being in the room with him, he stood in front of Ruffy and hummed a song he sang to him when he was a child and had bad dreams. Flampe was probably too scared to even hear him, though.

It took around five minutes before Ruffy's breathing calmed. Katakuri silently walked to Flampe, his boots covered with mochi to not make too much noise. He helped Flampe up, still humming, and lead her away and around the nearest bend, with Ruffy out of view. He made sure to put a finger in front of his scarf to make sure she kept quiet. He looked down and covered all of the camera snails with mochi, and stepped on them, making sure no photos of Ruffy's emotional breakdown and the dragon attack would be found.

When he hurried back to Ruffy, he was still, and finally collapsed to the side, dragging the mochi around his legs with him, stretching it. He sat next to his head and took the bindings off of his face. Ruffy was deep asleep.

Katakuri wondered where Luffy had run off to. If he had found Brulee, who had been sneaking around while watching the fight. Surely, she hadn't seen the whole episode since there had been no scream in fear or shock.

He sighed. "What a mess," the man said, looking around at the destroyed mirror world. Glass was everywhere from the shattered mirrors along the walls and ceiling. Plus, all of the rubble from the battle between Katakuri and Luffy.

Ruffy slowly transformed back into full human form, the brace having been torn. Katakuri took the injured arm and inspected it, frowning deeply when he saw that the bone had slipped again, and the stitches had ripped. It would no doubt be very painful again.

Gently, he wrapped a mochi brace around it again, making a strap as well to make it a sturdy sling. He wondered how things would work out with Flampe. There had no doubt been no pictures of the dragon attack, since he saw all of the snails scattered on the ground when he walked Flampe away. And hey, maybe Flampe would leave Ruffy alone from now on.

Katakuri waited with Ruffy until he woke up, sore and exhausted. "Dad, what happened?" Ruffy asked, his throat sore for some reason.

"Hey, how do you feel?"

"I'm tired. What happened? Why is everything a wreck?" he wondered, looking at the damaged walls and mirrors. Plus, the massive puddle of mochi still on the ground a little ways away from them.

"You had an episode. A big one," Katakuri said honestly. Ruffy turned red in embarrassment. "You were already very upset, and had started to calm down before you heard some mocking. I used haki to put you to sleep, but your zoan side lost control. You tried to kill Flampe. I restrained you. Your arm is back in a terrible condition.

"When Brulee comes back, I'll take you to a doctor. Luffy is gone, and Flampe has ran off, too."

"I'm sorry I ruined it. Now we'll both get in trouble for letting him get away," Ruffy mumbled.

"We can just say he ran away and took Brulee with him. I doubt Flampe will turn us in, based on the fact you could have easily squashed her. You're always in complete control, but really you do look scary. She just knows you're kind and was never scared of your dragon form.

"I bet that has changed. Same with her underlings," he explained. "Open your mouth for me." Ruffy did so as Katakuri inspected the cuts in his cheeks. "Do they hurt? The cuts in your inner cheeks?"

Ruffy shook his head. "I can only really feel my arm right now," he replied. "Luffy could really take a beating, couldn't he?" Katakuri nodded in agreement.

"I guess being made of rubber is pretty convenient."

"Guess so. Did you really help Sanji leave?" Katakuri asked, though not sounding angry, which surprised Ruffy.

"It was actually an accident at first. Pudding captured Sanji's sister after she was sneaking around, and told her the whole plan about killing Sanji and his crappy family. I only knew he was listening through the window after much of the conversation. But I let him keep listening so he could leave. And I didn't go after him afterwards."

"That could be considered an accident," the father replied.

"You're not angry?" Ruffy asked in shock. Katakuri shook his head.

"Besides, there's nothing we can do about it now anyways. And it was Pudding who was the one to tell the whole plan to an enemy."

"Yeah. Was it hard fighting Luffy?" Ruffy asked curiously, but cautiously. Katakuri's eyebrows furrowed. He nodded.

"It felt like I was beating you to death. But, you're commentary helped, even if the teasing was annoying," Katakuri replied. Ruffy chuckled. "I hope Brulee was exaggerating. There's no way I never lay on my back, ever. You'd think me having a bed would make them realize that I do. I wonder how everyone would react to my real face, after thinking I'm perfect," Katakuri mused, though he didn't seem bothered about it much. "My older siblings all know about it, but all the younger ones don't."

"Maybe them knowing would get rid of that stupid fanclub. You're too _noble _to have a shallow fanclub like that," Ruffy joked.

"Shut up," though he didn't say it in a mean voice.


	10. After Story

**Last chapter. Kind of sad this fic didn't get much attention, especially on ao3.**

"When is Brulee coming back?" Ruffy asked, clenching his teeth. His arm had started to really hurt after the confusion and numbing sensation went away, which came after he had an episode. He had made his arm even worse when he went out of control.

"I don't know. I'm sure Luffy got out. No idea where Flampe has gone," Katakuri said, finishing all his donuts he'd not finished. The bodies of the chefs that witnessed everything were by the mochi blobs Luffy had eaten through. They had seen Ruffy's emotional breakdown, episode, him admitting that he had helped Sanji, and seen Katakuri without his scarf. So obviously, they couldn't live after that much.

"My arm hurts really bad," Ruffy admitted. "I wonder what's going on outside."

"I have no idea. The transponder snails were smashed to pieces. So, we're completely in the dark. It's not your fault, and since Brulee hasn't come back, we're just stuck. I'm sure by now everyone knows Luffy isn't in here with us anymore."

"...I'm bored."

"Why don't we go to some place with mirrors still intact. Maybe we'll come across Flampe," Katakuri said, helping Ruffy up.

"'Cause I _so_ want to see the person who made me have an episode in the first place," Ruffy said sarcastically. Katakuri frowned a him, though understood how he felt. Flampe had openly mocked him in a very emotional and painful moment. He might not really remember her laughing and mocking since he'd been in between knowing what was going on and freaking out.

They walked down the corridor together, both of them a bit tired. Ruffy more mentally, Katakuri physically. Ruffy finally voiced the desire he'd had all day: just to go home and try and forget the whole thing happened.

"That would be nice, but we'll no doubt be feeling the after effects of this for awhile. Not just with the destruction of Whole Cake Island and probably _at least _one island, but it will affect everyone emotionally from the betrayal. Bege, Jinbei, Chiffon… then the injured. Not to mention that someone besides Opera had to have been killed or mortally wounded."

Ruffy sighed. "Is it my fault?"

Katakuri stopped and looked at him in surprise. "Why would it be your fault?" he asked, confused. Ruffy shrugged.

"Just feel like it is."

"Well its not, and I don't know where you would get that idea from. Just because you're Luffy's brother doesn't mean it's your fault he came in the first place. He came for his friend, so if it's anyone's fault, it's our family's. Don't tell anyone I said that, though," Katakuri said.

They turned a corner and found Flampe against the wall, sitting down, shaking. Her friends were nowhere to be found. She looked up from the sound of Katakuri's shoes clicking. She gasped and jumped to her feet. Ruffy stared at her coldly, eyes narrowed slightly.

"Did you have fun mocking me?" he asked in an ice cold voice. She didn't answer, just had wide eyes. "Are you going to stop being a jerk to me since I would have killed you if dad hadn't intervened?"

Apologizing wasn't something Flampe did. She had told him that before, so he didn't expect it.

"Come on, let's go and try to find Brulee," Katakuri said before Ruffy could tear into her verbally some more. He was in full human form, not even partial anymore. Luffy wasn't around anymore to confuse him with.

Flampe walked a bit behind the father and son. They would eventually find Brulee, but until then they'd keep walking in one direction. "I'm not going to kill you now," Ruffy called from a few yards ahead of the bratty girl.

Flampe didn't answer, which was nice. It was calm and quiet, finally, making Ruffy's ears feel perfectly back to normal. Light conversation didn't hurt, but he hadn't heard silence in awhile, so it was nice.

The three walked for awhile, Ruffy calling Brulee's name. It took over an hour of walking through the endless halls that they came across Brulee, running towards them. "Where have you been?! I've been looking for hours!" she called angrily.

"And why is so many of the mirrors shattered?" the woman asked.

"We ran into a little trouble with Luffy and some things happened to destroy the mirrors. Don't ask anymore about it," Katakuri replied. "We've been looking for you, too. The transponder snails were destroyed. What's been going on outside?"

"Straw Hat, that jerk, dragged me around for awhile until I was able to escape for once! He hasn't come back to the mirror world, and he's not fighting you anymore, so their plan has shattered. Anything on your end from the mirror in Ruffy's pocket?"

Ruffy looked down in shame. He ruined everything. Broke the snails, let Luffy get away, and the mirror shattered when he fell to the side in dragon form. "The mirror is broken. We hadn't heard anything from it, since the pieces were so small. So we left it behind."

"Brulee, we need to take Ruffy to a doctor," Katakuri said, changing the subject.

"What about everything that's happening?" she asked incredulously. Katakuri stared at her with a blank face.

"I already killed Straw Hat once, and he got away from us. Then he somehow found you. Were you still hanging around?" he asked almost nervously. Had she seen Luffy's episode and just wasn't saying anything about it?

Brulee looked embarrassed of being caught _again_. "Yeah, I was behind the bend. I heard a lot of shouting from Ruffy's voice. Then, Straw Hat turned the corner, bleeding, and took me through the nearest mirror." Katakuri and Ruffy sighed quietly, glad she hadn't heard or seen what had happened.

"Ruffy needs to be checked. Come look at his arm, and then you might understand," the father said. Brulee frowned in concern and walked over to look inside the split open mochi brace. It had a lot of blood in it, with the bone sticking out and the stitches torn apart. The wound looked angry from not being treated properly.

Without responding, other than looking slightly disgusted at the mess inside the cast, she called, "Mirrors! Find a doctor's office!"

It was seconds later that distant calls of mirrors echoed in the mirror world. They followed the direction with Ruffy's guide in which direction the sound was coming from. Brulee walked with them, looking behind at Flampe, who was pale and looking scared. "What's your problem?" she asked.

"Nothing much. She just got afraid of Luffy. isn't that right, _Flampe_?" Ruffy asked, adding a light snarl to the end of his words. She "eep!"ed and nodded her head in agreement. Katakuri looked to the side at Ruffy to see a smug grin on his face. Katakuri shook his head with a sigh.

They shortly arrived at a large mirror that Katakuri would be able to crawl out. "Brulee, get Flampe to somewhere safe, where she can't interfere with anything," the man instructed. Flampe's face was red in embarrassment and irritation of how angry she'd made Katakuri. She hadn't meant to piss him off.

Ever since Flampe had turned four, she'd hated Ruffy. Katakuri had always been with Ruffy, as he had still been a child. And, when Ruffy wasn't with him, it was because Katakuri was doing missions or important jobs, not time for Flampe.

Ruffy had been perfectly friendly with her, but she was so jealous of his and Katakuri's close relationship that she'd always been as mean as she could. It didn't bother Ruffy much anymore, _usually, _since he was used to it and knew, even if he said nothing, he had the upper hand. After all, he still lived with his dad.

Ruffy and Katakuri emerged from the mirror in the waiting room, and walked to the counter, Ruffy sitting down on a chair near the window. They were on Liqueur Island, which hadn't been touched by Mama and no trouble had come to it, though many had considered evacuating after hearing about the destruction of Nuts Island.

But, there were still staff here. "Katakuri-sama!" the secretary exclaimed, not expecting someone like him to come in. He was slightly hunched since the ceiling was tall, but not tall enough. "Are you injured, sir?" she asked, recovering from her shock with a red face.

"No, Ruffy is. He has a severely broken arm that needs treatment." There were a few others in the room, but no one considered going in before one of the Charlottes. Besides, they all had minor injuries.

Ruffy was called in immediately, but Katakuri wouldn't fit, so he sat on the floor, leaning against the wall, since the chairs were definitely not sized for him.

Ruffy followed the doctor, a small man with a balding head. His name tag read "Jack". He didn't exchange pleasantries before telling Ruffy he was going to cut off the mochi brace, which he offhandedly said had been a good idea.

When he saw the mess of Ruffy's arm, he frowned. The mochi brace was taken away, bloody on the inside and tossed into the biohazard trash. Ruffy immediately was told he needed surgery on it. He had to get plates to keep the bone aligned properly. He didn't really want to be unconscious again, since the last time he'd turned into a monster and almost killed someone.

"Can I stay awake during it?" the teen asked. It was shot down immediately. Jack got to work quickly, gently removing the torn stitches with tweezers. He told Ruffy to lay down, making him wince from the bruising on his back, but said nothing about it. There wasn't much he could do about it hurting while laying down.

Ruffy was given an oxygen mask as he was put to sleep. Only fifteen minutes in and he was already being prepped for surgery. Some other doctors had come in to help, though the surgery would be quite easy.

The wound was sterilized, and slowly and cautiously the bone was moved back into place, and metal plates were attached to keep the bones correctly aligned in the right place. It could have gotten very infected in the clammy insides of the mochi brace, with the bone not in place correctly. It had gotten worse after the dragon incident.

The skin was sewn back, much more carefully than the rush job earlier. He was asleep through the whole thing, and nothing out of the ordinary happened, thankfully. He didn't turn into dragon form and destroy everything like Mama was.

It was a long hour and a half, plus the hour afterwards of Ruffy staying asleep. Katakuri didn't fit, so he was waiting in the front room, tapping his big foot nervously. Ruffy knew he sometimes hated his size.

When Ruffy came back out, wearing his ripped pants, he had a real cast on, and was told very sternly that he was not to overexert himself until he was healed. Which meant no turning into dragon form. He could change into partial form since only his skin and abilities changed, not his bones. Therefore, changing into that form shouldn't damage his healing arm.

It had been dark at night when they arrived, and now was later. As Ruffy lounged on Katakuri's shoulder, he went and found the nearest business that wasn't the doctors' and asked for their transponder snail. They needed to know what was happening while they were in the dark and trapped in the mirror world, and then stuck in the little hospital while Ruffy had surgery.

He called Oven first. It rang for a while, before the man picked up, sounding angry. "_Hello?" _he asked gruffly.

"Oven, it's Katakuri," he said, preparing for the shouting by putting the snail a bit away from him.

"_WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?! YOU LET STRAW HAT GET AWAY!" _Oven raged, the snail looking angry as well.

"We ran into some problems in the mirror world. Straw Hat got away with Brulee, and me and Ruffy were stranded. The transponder snails broke. What's been happening since we were gone?" He didn't mention that they went to get Ruffy's arm fixed before.

"_Pudding is making the cake now. Mama decimated Nuts Island. Apparently Straw Hat showed up there, but then was gone. He had Brulee with him. So, he escaped back into the mirror world. Where are you now?"_

"Liquer Island. Where is Mama right now?"

"_I don't know, ask Perospero. I'm heading to Cacao. Even if their plan isn't the same, that has to be their meeting place still. I'm bringing lots of troops,"_ and then it was hung up.

"Are we going to get in trouble?" Ruffy asked slowly, still a little off from the medication. Katakuri answered that he didn't know and hoped not. "As long as Flampe doesn't say anything. I doubt Luffy will to anyone important."

Katakuri dialed Perospero's snail, and the two waited for an answer. When it was picked up, there were lots of noises in the background.

"This is Katakuri. What's going on with you and Mama?" Before Perospero could demand to know what happened, Katakuri said, "We had some problems in the mirror world. Ended up stranded and unable to get out or make any communication. What's going on? What is the status on Mama?"

"_Just left Nuts Island, which was decimated. We're still following closely behind the Straw Hats. Zeus and Prometheus are back for Mama, so we're not on the candy anymore. She's lost a lot of weight just from this bout of hunger pangs. If she doesn't get baked cake soon, Totto Land is doomed."_

"I'm on Liqueur Island and people are talking about evacuating. Are you still headed to Cacao?" Katakuri asked. He and Ruffy were both sitting on the curb now.

"_Following the Straw Hat's ship at the moment. How did you let Straw Hat get away?!"_

"He ran. Took Brulee and ran. It left me and Luffy stuck in the mirror world for hours with no means of communication. The transponder snails had been crushed in the fighting," Katakuri replied smoothly.

"_Well that was inconvenient. Do you have any way off of the island?" _Perospero asked. They could barely hear Mama screaming in the background, along with Ruffy hearing the Straw Hats screaming as well.

"No. We don't have any snail with Brulee and Ruffy can't change into dragon form anytime soon. His arm is too injured to shift."

"_Damn. Liquer Island is far from the action. Don't know how you can get back anywhere near the action without the mirror world."_

"Yeah, we know. If you see Brulee or hear from her tell her we'll be waiting on Liqueur Island. We really are stuck. Update me when Mama gets the cake. She has to, or everyone is doomed," Katakuri said in a very serious voice. He was concerned, like the rest. He could only imagine how terrifying Mama must be at the moment.

"_Will do," _and the snail hung up. Luffy looked up to him.

"Are we really just going to wait here?"

Katakuri sighed. "Can't help it. We should have taken a mirror for communication with Brulee. I feel like an idiot for not doing that."

Ruffy sighed. "Well, nothing we can do now. Especially me, since I'm useless now," he said and frowned at his cast. "Hopefully it will heal soon." Ruffy then paused and looked up at Katakuri, who looked so tired. Physically or emotionally, or maybe both. It had been a stressful day and night. "If Luffy and his crew get away, they're heading to Wano Kingdom. I heard them say it multiple times. If they escape, will we follow them?" Ruffy really didn't want to. He wanted this to be over already.

Katakuri sighed. "Mama probably will. But, I assume I will be in trouble for letting Luffy get away. Though, in all honesty, I don't want to deal with the brat anymore. I'm still angry with your injuries, and that they were caused because of his stunt and recklessness. I can tell the inside of your mouth hurts by the way you're talking."

Ruffy shrugged in response. "The cuts will probably heal quicker than my arm will. I definitely won't be chasing after Luffy. Not in my condition, and like you, I really just don't want to."

The two waited in silence, staring at their feet. Ruffy's stomach growled. He hadn't eaten in a long time. Katakuri created a big blob of mochi and handed it to him, which Luffy gratefully devoured.

It was a boring wait, both of them lost in their thoughts and feelings of being useless. Neither had anyway to get back into the action, and Brulee would probably have a hard time finding the mirror they had. Even if she asked the mirrors for any information on them, there were still many thousands of mirrors in that dimension. The two could be anywhere in the mirror world.

Brulee finally found them after three hours of uncomfortable silence.

"Brother, Ruffy, what are you doing here?" she asked in bafflement, startling both with her sudden presence. Katakuri explained that he had taken Ruffy to the doctor and gotten his arm fixed up as best as possible. But he was unable to fight anymore.

Apparently, according to Brulee, the cake had been made, and Mama's hunger pangs had finally ended. But, Luffy and Sanji had gotten away and onto their ship, which was heavily damaged, but could still sail. Germa 66 had taken out many of the Charlottes and helped the Straw Hats escape.

But, the real reason the small crew got away was the damn Sun Pirates. They interfered to let Jinbei - the _traitor -_ get away. He had seemed to ditch the Sunny and went to help his former crew. So, there was a chance of getting even with those.

Since Luffy and his crew got away, the least they could do was take down the Sun Pirates. Brulee didn't know what happened with them yet, so she couldn't tell Ruffy and Katakuri if those had escaped as well.

Ruffy didn't know how to feel about the fact that his twin had gotten away. He was both angry about it, and relieved. Truly, he wanted to forget all about this night. Wanted to go home and sleep for a week. But he knew Mama would still be enraged with Luffy getting away after all he'd done. She ate the cake yes, but it was only a temporary calm for her.

Even if it was poisoned, Ruffy had no doubt Big Mom would not die. Though Ruffy didn't know if following Luffy would be the best idea in the long run. Ruffy knew that Wano was run by Kaido, another emperor. He didn't know the relationship between Kaido and Big Mom, but surely having Mama invade his land would be cause for some kind of dangerous retaliation.

But, that could wait for now. Ruffy just wanted to sleep. It was too late for him or Katakuri to do anything more with the escaping of the Straw hats and allies. They were completely out of the game. So, Ruffy leaned to the side against Katakuri's arm and willed himself to fall asleep.

-x-

When Morgans published the article on Luffy being crowned, in name, as the "Fifth Emperor of the Sea", Mama was beyond angry. Ruffy had no doubt the next time Big Mom met Morgans, the journalist would die painfully.

Katakuri had been scolded harshly, and threatened to have many years of his lifespan taken away, but he was able to slightly talk her down. So, he was stripped of his title temporarily, which was a big blow to him. Though, he didn't want to take part in the following of Luffy.

Many of his siblings were to go with Mama to Wano to capture Luffy and take revenge on him and strip him of _his _new title in front of the whole world. She wouldn't allow someone to run free who was said to have defeated her. Whatever that meant. Big Mom wasn't defeated unless she was dead.

Ruffy was thoroughly depressed after everything that had happened. Not just because he broke his arm and was useless ,or had his only brother practically betray him, but Pudding wouldn't talk to Ruffy. He wasn't told why, but knew she was upset, too, and was also stripped of her title for not killing Sanji when she had the chance, even if she had told the truth about her trying to kill him afterwards, and that he just dodged her bullets.

The only reason she wasn't severely punished _physically_ was the fact that she had made the cake that saved Totto Land. Though she had also been stripped of her role on her island because she worked with Chiffon, who was a traitor to the family as well as Jinbei and Bege. Who had both gotten away, though the Sun Pirates had suffered many casualties.

Flampe hadn't told anyone of Ruffy's episode, and it was the only good thing to come of the whole ordeal. Flampe avoided him like the plague, and he couldn't be happier about it. She was terrified of him, which Ruffy was happy with. No more rude and snide comments at his expense, or attempting to make him feel less valuable to his father.

Katakuri was angry with her still, and so she avoided him as well. He didn't mind this much. Ruffy joked about the fact that not only was Katakuri stripped of his high ranking position, but his fan club would probably be ended. He was, unsurprisingly, unbothered by this.

After Mama and many of the children who weren't injured or in trouble left to chase Luffy to Wano, Katakuri and Ruffy made themselves as useful as possible following the weeks of Big Mom's absence and helped to rebuild the islands that Big Mom had destroyed in her hunger Pangs. Ruffy wasn't much help with the laborious duties, as his arm was healing slowly, but he helped organize the efforts. At least he wasn't stuck at home, bored and alone with Pudding ignoring him.

Ruffy had trouble believing that most of the damage done with the whole kingdom was due to the destruction of the cake and a picture breaking. Ruffy felt that, if Big Mom had been herself, she would have easily caught Luffy and his crew. Well, now that she was back to normal, she might be able to stop the Straw Hats before they got to Wano. Or, she might just invade Wano along with the enemy, creating a bigger mess with the involvement of Kaido.

But things were nice and quiet with Big Mom gone. And only a few of the siblings had died, surprisingly. Many of them were injured badly, though. Ruffy knew Big Mom wouldn't give up until she was truly defeated, either dead or mortally injured, or until she painfully killed Monkey D. Luffy. And Ruffy didn't care anymore.

He didn't even open the letter he got from Luffy weeks after things had quieted in Totto Land. He tore it up, not wanting anything to do with him ever again. If it was an apology, it wasn't accepted. He felt he would just get enraged by reading whatever Luffy had sent him, no matter the contents.

All Ruffy could do was to try and move on and forget about it, though it would be very hard to get rid of the memories of everything that had happened. Even if he wanted to, he was sure that, at least for now, Pudding wouldn't use her devil fruit and erase the bad memories.

Ruffy wasn't weak and wouldn't take the very easy way out. He'd just move on as best as he could with what he was given, and become stronger from the whole experience. That was the least he could do.

-The end-


End file.
